What is a good website to use if you want to do a background check on someone? I am only looking to run a couple of people, I'm not looking to sign up for a long term use or payment.

Thanks

Our local p.d. will do it for a processing fee and a signed paper from the person in question .

They provide the approval paperwork.


They charged $xx.xx, and I charged the applicants 30% more.

LexisNexis

quote:

Originally posted by smithbc:

I'm not looking to sign up for a long term use or payment.

Thanks

Anything that is going to be of any use is going to cost you something.

I would do a basic online search (Google or others) and see if it leads to anything.
For criminal and civil issues, go to the clerk of the court in the county of residence, put their name into a search box and see if anything comes up. Also try anywhere else you can find a former address.
Not perfect, but free and shouldn't take too long.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
LexisNexis

quote:

Originally posted by smithbc:

I'm not looking to sign up for a long term use or payment.

Thanks

Anything that is going to be of any use is going to cost you something.

That came out wrong. I don't mind paying. I just to pay for each background check. I don't want to sign up for a monthly "subscription"

The only route to try to get at least a portion of someone's criminal record for free is to see if the state and/or county where they live(d) have public online databases of court records. You could search their name and DOB in that database and potentially find some things.

For example, Arkansas has Public Court Connect, which is a database of some of the public court records from around the state.

But you'd have to know everywhere that they've lived, and even then, not every court or agency in those jurisdictions is going to be tied into these kinds of public court record databases. Smaller jurisdictions especially may not be connected yet, and even the ones that are may or may not have gone back and digitized all their older records the predate the initial adoption of the database system.

Best case is typically that you may be able to find some of their recent adult criminal cases, domestic relations/divorce cases, and lawsuits.

But if someone comes back with no record in those, that only tells you that they have no recent records within any participating court within that area, not a firm indication that they have no record overall.

Then there are things like sealed records, confidential juvenile records, etc. that aren't public information to begin with and would never be available in those kinds of sources.


Nearly all of the various "online person search" websites - even the ones that want you to pay for access - are just going to be pulling from these types of free public databases anyway. With the same limitations. Just with a fee tacked on for the "convenience", or just for those who don't know any better.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Anything that is going to be of any use is going to cost you something.

Pretty much this.

If this is for a legitimate purposes with that person's permission (e.g. not just you trying to be nosy and find out whether your neighbor or your sister's new boyfriend is a criminal or not), a better and more thorough option is to find a local or national background investigation company and pay them to do a more exhaustive record check on that person after having them fill out the requisite forms. This is what most companies do for things like pre-employment record checks. These companies have the means to access proprietary third party record databases, and the experience to know what is needed to dig up past stuff that may not be digitized.

Private investigators also commonly offer similar types of service on the side. For example, they may have an account with a more robust database like LexisNexis, and for a small fee, they will use it to run a quick check on that person for you. Not as good as a full blown background check company, but potentially better than just hunting around through various public court databases yourself.

You're in Indiana it appears. Check https://mycase.in.gov. It's searchable by name and DOB. Free, and available to the public. Only includes Indiana cases, though.

smithbc:

Are you friends with any Realtors? We used a Realtor a couple times to run background checks on prospective tenants a couple of times and her tool (not sure what she used, could have just been LexisNexis) turned up some stuff on one that saved us a whole lot of hassle and possible eviction and all that mess.

This young woman looked and sounded great and said all the right things when we showed her the place we were renting out and sat for the quick interview. The Realtor's report however painted a far different picture with multiple arrests for harassment and disturbing the peace, evictions and really terrible credit. NOPE! NEXT!

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
You're in Indiana it appears. Check https://mycase.in.gov. It's searchable by name and DOB. Free, and available to the public. Only includes Indiana cases, though.

Thanks for the link. This was very helpful.

Thanks again

quote:

Originally posted by smithbc:

Thanks for the link. This was very helpful.

Thanks again

NP. We use that site all the time, but I think the only people who know about it are cops and people who regularly get warrants lol.