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Using Internet For Background Investigations
First, lets clear up the advertising at some web sites that offer records for sale. The "Nationwide Criminal Background Check" is a myth. Aside from restricted government systems, there is no such capability. In fact, even NCIC has limitations. Consider the illegal alien problem for one thing. For another, take a look at the actual statistics as to what NCIC actually contains: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, as stated in their report “Improving Criminal History Records for Background Checks” dated July 7, 2006 the total number of individual records available (used for pre-sale firearms background checks) was 63,177,363. Are there duplicate records in that count? Considering that the “official” U.S. population is 299,673,267 (as of September 7, 2006) and you can see that probably a quarter of the population (or less) is included. The 63,177,363 records are held in various state and federal databases. Here’s the breakdown: State Indexed III Records 36,233,286 FBI Maintained III Records* 19,943,820 Denied Persons File 367,933 Illegal/Unlawful Aliens Records 3,329,853 Controlled Substance Abuse Records 619 Dishonorable Dischargees 15,046 Citizenship Renounced 12,603 Mental Defective Records 234,628 Wanted Persons & Foreign Fugitives 1,241,700 Immigration Violator 163,583 Protection Order File 949,858 Convicted Persons on Supervised Release 269,962 National Sex Offender Registry 414,472 63,177,363 *Includes federal & foreign offender records Looking at this from the positive side, about 75 percent of the population is “law abiding.” If you want to check anyone’s background using Internet, what information is available? Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is comprehensive, easy to use and inexpensive. It’s nationwide but it only covers Federal Courts. It costs eight cents to search and eight cents per page of resulting records. Average cost is usually less than a dollar if you find something. Because bankruptcy filings are done in Federal Courts, you’ll find them in PACER too. You can search by Social Security Number and name plus various combinations of date and location limiters. Speaking of SSNs, the Social Security Administration has a web site where employers can validate the ubiquitous identifier. Located at http://www.ssa.gov/employer/ssnv.htm, There are two Internet verification options you can use to verify that your employee names and Social Security numbers match Social Security's records. You can verify up to 10 names and SSNs (per screen) online and receive immediate results. This option is ideal to verify new hires. In addition, you can Upload batch files of up to 250,000 names and SSNs and usually receive results the next government business day. This option is ideal if you want to verify an entire payroll database or if you hire a large number of workers at a time. While the service is available to all employers and third-party submitters, it can only be used to verify current or former employees and only for wage reporting (Form W-2) purposes. Another free and very powerful tool is Google. Use it to search a person’s name and you may turn up some interesting stuff. The trick is using the right search method. Using quotation marks around the name will return only exact hits. This means that if you search for “David Vine” (using quotation marks as a part of the search string) you will get only hits that have that exact string. If you search for “David A. Vine” you will get a different result. Also, try “Vine, David” the format in which many official records will list a name. Google will search landline and cellular telephone numbers as well as e-mail addresses. If it is a listed number you will get a telephone listing in name and address format. If it’s an unlisted number (landline or cellular) that is on a web page on Internet, you’ll find it. The information on the found web page can provide some background information. The same is true for e-mail addresses. Internet-accessible library resources almost always provide a good collection of newspaper archive databases. These free databases usually go back in time several years (some as far back as the early 1980s). Most library databases available via Internet require a library card barcode and some need passwords as well. Check with your local library for details. Consider that ordinary details of a person’s life sometimes are “written up” in the local paper (as well as obituaries listing relatives) and you can see why newspaper archives can be fruitful. “Public records” (maintained by local, county, state and federal agencies) are plentiful. One of the first types of public records available via Internet is the property record. These are usually found on the county assessor or tax collector web site for a particular county. A few jurisdictions even have databases of “personal property” such as autos, boats, etc. if they are taxable. Sex offender records have received a lot of publicity in the past few years. Each state (and some counties in a few states) maintains these records, which are publicly accessible via Internet. Each state has a site for statewide lookups and the U.S. Department of Justice now has a “National Sex Offender Public Registry.” According to the DOJ, “Using this web site, interested members of the public have access to and may search participating state Web site public information regarding the presence or location of offenders, who, in most cases, have been convicted of sexually-violent offenses against adults and children and certain sexual contact and other crimes against victims who are minors.” The system can be used for nationwide searches and is located at http://www.nsopr.gov/. Driver records from the appropriate state agency are almost always available to potential employers. The same is true for statewide criminal histories. Many states now have Internet services through which you can obtain a criminal history. The process for obtaining driver records is more difficult, usually requiring a filled out form and payment of a specified fee. Some states do have online search capabilities for employers and private investigators. The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has a database located at bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp that permits searches as far back as 1982. This searchable database contains brief records on current and former inmates that were under the control of the BOP. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a “National Driver Register.” According to the Administration, “The National Driver Register (NDR) is a central repository of information on individuals whose privilege to drive has been revoked, suspended, canceled or denied or who have been convicted of serious traffic-related offenses. The records maintained at the NDR consist of identification information including name, date of birth, gender, driver license number, and reporting State. All of the substantive information, the reason for the suspension or conviction and associated dates, resides in the reporting State.” Current or prospective employers of motor vehicles operators legally authorized to receive information from the NDR. Although not searchable via Internet, the form that must be used to request information is a downloadable PDF file. It can be found at: www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/perform/driver/pub/PRIVACY.PDF There are many other types of records that can be checked during a background investigation. For example, professional license verifications and possible regulatory agency disciplinary action are available, usually at the state level. Many, many other Internet accessible sources can prove useful in a variety of situations. Through our Internet For InvestigatorsTM seminar and Advanced Internet Search For InvestigatorsTM workshop we help participants better utilize Internet to locate people and obtain background information about people and companies. Please visit www.investigativetechnology.net for more information and an up-to-date schedule of our programs. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com |
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