‘AT THE SOURCE’ Checks (in-person or remote via official courthouse portal) are the Best Practice for County Criminal Record Checks

Instant checks are flawed:

• Private database usage:
  • relying on a third party’s collation of data, that is sold to private industry, results in data that is inherently “out of date” – with some data having not been refreshed for weeks or months.
  • some companies further corrupt findings for operational efficiencies (e.g. they may perform a search against only active zip codes, thereby missing records associated to a zip code that no longer exists)
• State database usage (law enforcement use only):
  • law enforcement’s relied-upon databases are notoriously incomplete – even states that have invested in state-wide databases are reliant on counties/municipalities that are not incentivized/motivated to “push” their data “uphill”.

Remote and In-person checks are the best source for current and official records:

• real time dispositions are maintained locally
• access is to source data instead of potentially incomplete, out-of-date, or corrupt data