The reason I’m asking is this, my ex wife has an unemployed male living with her and my minor son goes to her place every other weekend. I saw this male at a court hearing yesterday between the ex and myself. He looks shady as hell and now I’m genuinely concerned about his past.

The way he stalked around the courthouse and postured when we made eye contact instantly set off red flags.

Records of adult criminal cases are generally public record. However, they may be more or less easily accessible, depending on whether that particular city/county has online records available. And you may have to look separately in every city/county where he's lived.

In some cases, it's as simple a searching his name and DOB in a city/county/state public court information database, like CourtConnect for Arkansas. Or this may involve physically submitting paper Freedom of Information Act requests to a number of different agencies, in other cases.

A local private investigation firm should have access to something like a third party database or automated system that simplifies or speeds up this process of checking every city/county for public information criminal records. But that'll require paying for their assistance.

Nearly all governmental electronic central repositories of detailed criminal histories, like NCIC or the various similar state databases, are restricted to official law enforcement use only. A LEO looking up someone for personal reasons, or sharing the information with others for personal reasons, is a felony in every state of which I'm aware.

Google has proved reliable for me. You’d be surprised what you can find about anyone’s history

Most if not all states have a public sex offender database you can search. The state I'm in also has a public court case database. If you can't find something like that for your state with Google you could probably call the county clerk of courts and ask them.

There are a number of information-aggregation services that scrub local and state databases, and the internet, to gather information on people and sell it on the web. They are similar to the high-level "data brokers" that gather information for analytics by commercial firms.

When you go to them -- MyLife, Truthfinder, Spokeo, Been Verified, Intellius, etc. -- and type in a name, they quickly provide addresses and a few family connections and tantalize you with the hidden records they have on crime, sex-offender status, bankruptcies, social media postings, email accounts, forum memberships, etc. But they won't show any of that, of course, for free. You have to pay them for the data...

That's all I know. I do not know which ones are the best (most complete) or the most accurate. If anyone knows, please post the information! There are a few people I'd like to look up...

Perhaps you can at least start with "sexual offender status" of this person.

http://www.accesskansas.org/kb...September%202016.pdf

As a parent/grandparent, and the fact that we read reports daily of crimes against others being committed, I applaud you concerns and hope you follow the correct and lawful means to get the answers you can for your situation.

Those "reports" in the news are happening to "someone".

quote:

A local private investigation firm should have access to something like a third party database or automated system that simplifies or speeds up this process of checking every city/county for public information criminal records. But that'll require paying for their assistance.

^^^^^^^^^^^
I would get a referral for a local PI. This should be relatively inexpensive. It would take a nonprofessional much more time. As the others have stated, public records are online, but are not consolidated.

I have used publicdata.com in the past.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

A local private investigation firm should have access to something like a third party database or automated system that simplifies or speeds up this process of checking every city/county for public information criminal records. But that'll require paying for their assistance.

^^^^^^^^^^^
I would get a referral for a local PI. This should be relatively inexpensive. It would take a nonprofessional much more time. As the others have stated, public records are online, but are not consolidated.

This is your best bet if you want fast and accurate. We use these services at work and they are very comprehensive. You’re looking for an Accurint report or equivalent.

In North Carolina offender records are public record Link. The only caveat is only current prisoners have their pictures available. If you have general information you may be able to find your guy in your states’ database.

Unfortunately, if he’s in or has committed offenses in other states you will need to find their site - if they offer one.

Thanks all for the replies. I googled and found enough to justify my suspicions. I will talk to my lawyer today and see who she recommends for a more comprehensive search.

Many states (including California unfortunately) have arrest/conviction records that are only accessible on a "need to know-right to know" basis. Even law enforcement personnel can't access the data without providing a current case number that can later be used to confirm the information was obtained lawfully. If it wasn't (ie: "Just curious."), the personnel involved can be disciplined up to and including charged with criminal offenses. The organization can have it's access further restricted or even barred.

Federal data bases such as NCIC are also subject to such restrictions and generally the public doesn't have access.

Google search to find out where he lived in the past (plus whatever else may pop up) then look up clerk of the court for those jurisdictions.
Not perfect but you can do it yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by RoverSig:
There are a number of information-aggregation services that scrub local and state databases, and the internet, to gather information on people and sell it on the web. They are similar to the high-level "data brokers" that gather information for analytics by commercial firms.

When you go to them -- MyLife, Truthfinder, Spokeo, Been Verified, Intellius, etc. -- and type in a name, they quickly provide addresses and a few family connections and tantalize you with the hidden records they have on crime, sex-offender status, bankruptcies, social media postings, email accounts, forum memberships, etc. But they won't show any of that, of course, for free. You have to pay them for the data...

That's all I know. I do not know which ones are the best (most complete) or the most accurate. If anyone knows, please post the information! There are a few people I'd like to look up...

I have used MyLife and Truthfinder. They seem to do a good job.

flashguy

I prefer whitepages.com background checks. I’ve been pleased with the 4 or 5 I’ve done.

PDF report.

Personally, I don't trust any of these internet search engines.... a few years back just for kicks I ran checks on several direct family members.. .father, brother and my wife .... what I got was several traffic tickets and that's all. which I knew... then I did the same for me..... guess what? no primal offenses reported...and believe me I've been ticketed a lot.... we won't even get into what I did back in 1978 which is now considered a 'minor' offense .. or the file the FBI has on me when they suspected I was the Unabomber.... (I'm not making any of this up)

Something else to look at is newspapers. My local paper runs a Police Blotter and since it's online and the paper is archived you can find charges against people going back decades.

I use my local county Sheriff's site. I can look up an "inmate search" and see what crimes people have done. They also have a sex offender search.
Just used it yesterday after an employee was "missing" for 4 days. Turns out he beat up his girlfriend and was in jail.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
I use my local county Sheriff's site. I can look up an "inmate search" and see what crimes people have done.

I don't know about Armpit County, Ohio specifically, but around here the Sheriff's Offices only have online info on people currently in their detention center, or who were booked and then released within the past 3 days. And that seems to be the trend across the country.

So this means that while the local Sheriff's website is a potentially good avenue for finding out a possible explanation for why your employee did not show up for work today, it is not a good avenue for trying to find someone's past criminal history. It's for current/recent detainee information, not for background checks.

It won't help if you're gathering info on someone who's not currently in that jail or who hasn't been in that jail within the past 3 days, including those who were arrested outside of that county, or who were arrested by another agency that has their own jail and that doesn't utilize the county detention center.

And even if they're currently in detention or had been booked within the past 3 days, it won't tell you anything about their earlier prior criminal history. Just the reason for their most recent arrest.

It also won't help if the person had committed an offense within the past 3 days but was just issued a citation without an arrest or booking, like for a misdemeanor that did not occur in the officer's presence.

And keep in mind that just because someone is arrested for something, doesn't mean that they will be eventually convicted of it. Background checks typically look primarily for convictions or similar findings of guilt, not just initial arrests. A lot can happen/change between an initial arrest requiring mere probable cause, and an eventual trial requiring proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

quote:

Originally posted by badcopnodonut!!:
Thanks all for the replies. I googled and found enough to justify my suspicions. I will talk to my lawyer today and see who she recommends for a more comprehensive search.

Thanks for being pro active and protecting your son the best you can.