SCREENING SOLUTIONS
In Search of the Best Criminal Search: County Level or Statewide?
From time to time, InfoMart's Criminal Department receives requests from clients asking us whether they should run a county level or a statewide search on their applicants. While that decision is ultimately up to the client, we hope that by examining and explaining the differences between the two, we can help make your decision a little easier.
County Level Criminal Searches
County level criminal searches are searches that are performed at courthouses in the requested county. These searches are conducted by directly accessing that court's records and looking for the applicant's information. When conducting these searches, we are looking for felony and misdemeanor records that were handled in that county's court. Each county houses their records differently, so the search is handled in a variety of ways depending on how the court is set up:
- Public Access Terminals: These are computers set up by the courts for record searches. Many courts have switched over to these terminals, but the record information may not date back very far.
- Direct Access Portals: Similar to public access terminals except that these use the Internet to connect directly to the court's system.
- Docket Books: These are large tomes in which records are cataloged by year. In many cases, the records are handwritten and can date back as far as the 1800s.
- Index Cards: Similar to docket books, these are handwritten records on index cards.
- Clerk Search: In this search method, applicant information is given to the court clerk and the clerk conducts the search and provides the results.
Statewide Criminal Searches
Statewide criminal searches are set up differently than county searches. Though they all accomplish the same general task, these searches are conducted in a number of ways, through a wide variety of venues:
- Police Departments: Some states allow access to their police database. These searches provide similar information to what a police officer would receive if he or she pulled up an individual's record. The only difference is that the information InfoMart receives is filtered to accommodate any state laws limiting public information.
- State Database Agencies: Some states mandate that all county agencies upload criminal information to a central database specifically for criminal background checks. This central database is then used to conduct the statewide search.
- Direct Access Portals: Just like on the county level, some states provide access to their criminal records via direct connection through the Internet.
- Attorney General's Office: A few states use their Attorney General's office to conduct a criminal background search.
Now that you know a little about how the searches are conducted, let's explore the differences in the information provided. The most obvious difference is that a statewide search will cover a larger area than a county level search. But that doesn't mean that the statewide is always the best option, and in several states they aren't an option at all.
In most situations, a county level search will have the most accurate and up-to-date information about the cases in that jurisdiction. While the statewide may contain the same cases as the county search, the information may have been put together through a patchwork of sources (arresting agency, Attorney General's office, the prison database, the probation office, etc.), and it may not be the final information from the court. Also, as mentioned earlier, there are some states that don't offer a statewide search at all, and some that offer a search, but not a worthwhile one (please contact InfoMart to obtain a copy of our Statewide Reliability Chart).
So, should you always just run county level searches? Not necessarily. Let's say that your applicant lives in Atlanta. While your applicant may not have a record in Fulton County, can you really be so sure about the 27 other surrounding counties that make up the Metro Atlanta Area? A statewide search would serve to cover that larger area and maybe find cases that otherwise would have been missed. Statewide databases also tend to go back further than county level searches, so you may find a conviction from 1992 that is pertinent to your hiring decision that would have been missed in a normal county level search.
As you can see, there are pros and cons to both county level and statewide criminal searches. If you run only the county of residence, or even every county that appears on the National Social Security Search, you may not catch everything. If you run only the statewide, you may not have the most accurate case information. So what should you do? As with background screening programs in general, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Every company needs different things from their search, but, as a general guideline, it wouldn't be a bad idea to run the county search and the statewide search. Using both searches will provide you with the updated case information from the county and the coverage from the statewide. You can also contact your Client Relations Representative, and they can assist you in deciding what is best for you based on your company's unique needs.
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