National County Courts
The United States contains 3,142 counties, boroughs, parishes and other equivalents. The only “National Criminal Records Search” that encompasses all these sources is solely maintained by the US Department of Justice / FBI. This DOJ allows access to this official repository to specifically authorized law enforcement personnel.
‘Best Practices’ in background screening would be to query every county location in the country, but this would both be time consuming and cost prohibitive. Most counties provide access to their offender information through a State Administration of Courts, but there are many jurisdictions (including Federal Courts), that only provide in-courthouse written requests or provide an in-courthouse kiosk.
An alternative to querying every county across the United States would be to establish residency for a particular applicant and then determine which counties to commence a county court level search. CRIS utilizes a nationwide network of experienced professionals who know their way around the local courthouses and can on your behalf execute the necessary paperwork or request to obtain these elusive county level records.
CRIS Researchers can help you decide whether a county level search is necessary. Some states provide excellent online records and we can assist in determining which states and/or counties that require further investigation.