Many people start searching online for a free criminal records database that is kept by the government. They find out what you probably have already found out: they don't exist. The technology is available to make one, but the government doesn't want to spend the time, money, or resources to maintain the database. There are, however, ways that you can perform a free criminal records search completely online.
Congress passed an act called the Freedom of Information Act which guarantees the right to be able to view all publicly available records and government information. This includes criminal records and arrest warrants. However, as stated before, the federal government does not keep a national database of criminal records. Instead, the states and local municipalities keep these records, and they are allowed the option of sharing the information with the public as they see fit.
Most states actually do make the information available, but require a lot of information first to be processed before they will hand over the records. Some of the information states and local municipalities require is the person's social security number, their consent, or a legitimate reason as to why the requester wants the information from the municipality.
A good majority of the criminal records searches are conducted by the prospective employer of the person that is being searched. In those cases, the person either has to sign a waiver of consent or has to be informed by the clerk that will be doing a criminal background check.
As you can probably see, conducting your own online records search isn't always easy, and many times results in only frustration. If you have to do this more than once, for example you're an employer who often times checks records, or are a landlord that does background checks on all prospective tenants, it can easily become a full time job.
There are services online, however, that have huge databases of hundreds of millions of criminal, property, divorce, and many other types of public records all in one centralized location. The best part of that is that it is search able as well! This way, you can go to one place, input the person's name, and see what comes up. It is completely necessary if you're a landlord or employer.
If you're simply trying to check up on someone, you'll be happy to know they will allow you to search for free and will give you limited information without having to pay a dime. If you want to see more specific details, they'll charge you less than what most local courthouses will charge for just a simple local search of the same records.
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