The Myth Of A Nationwide Criminal Database

Here is a helpful article about the myth of an all encompassing criminal database in the US. It simply does not exist. The FBI maintains its NCIC, but this database is available to law enforcement agencies only. Read BackgroundNow.com's article on the subject here. We find that any thorough check into people's backgrounds requires a physical search of the criminal indexes in each jurisdiction (generally county by county) in which they have lived and worked. A thorough criminal index for federal criminal matters can be found on Pacer. Certain states, such as Florida and Texas, do maintain reliable criminal databases, as pointed out in the article. The process described is still not a complete certainty, but it is as scientific as possible and allows for the best methodology as is practicable.