Best practices when searching for criminal records on Tracers.
Tracers Search Dashboard home page contains many options for different types of criminal records. Before searching, it is important to remember that information provided through our database is subject to the following restrictions and/or limitations:
- Coverage and Content -- Data may not be available from all states or all counties or all smaller subdivisions within. Some items of data may be available from some but not other jurisdictions, and many of the sources of court records have attempted to protect personal identifiers by no longer providing data fields containing Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, or telephone numbers.
- History -- Some jurisdictions provide deeper history than others, often due to the advent of computerized record keeping, which did not occur at the same time everywhere.
- Currentness -- Some jurisdictions provide more recent data than others, and some jurisdictions have ceased to make records available to the public.
- Reliability -- The data provided through this service is a snapshot in time and may not reflect all action that has occurred since electronic record of the reported event(s) were obtained.
- Accuracy -- Data entry errors occur everywhere every day. Positive ID requires fingerprint search. Disposition inquiries should be directed to the reporting agency.
- Verification -- Since records may not have sufficient information to establish an exact identity, search results should be taken only as an indicator of information available. Records are for informational purposes only.
- Completeness -- Information provided through this service is from public court records, but does not comprise all information from the official court records available to the public. Court pleadings, for instance, may be found in case files that may be viewed and copied at a courthouse. Confidential cases, sealed cases, sealed documents, and expunged records also are not available though our service.
- FCRA -- You may not use our service or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purposes that would require FCRA compliance.
You will want to check the Search Coverage and Description button on each search to see exactly what is covered in that search. Every search has a search description and coverage button to the top right of the search criteria boxes.
Coverage can vary state by state, and even county by county. Click on the blue i to open the list, and ensure that we have information on the area you need, prior to running your search.
After getting acquainted with the coverage for all the different searches available, you may be wondering what we recommend to get the most information in the most efficient way. Generally speaking, if you are looking for any criminal records, we recommend running the Criminal Package from the search dashboard home page.
The Criminal Package search is a combination search, which includes the Arrest Records, Criminal Records, Sex Offender Records, National Warrants, and Traffic Records searches in one. The individual search descriptions for each coverage list still applies.
There are different search criteria options available, depending on what information you have on your subject. However, more jurisdictions seem to be moving to redact personally identifiable information, like social security numbers, dates of birth, and address information, from their records for the sake of the individual's privacy. If the jurisdiction has redacted the SSN and/or DOB from their records, and you run the search by SSN or DOB, then it may return a no records found response. Therefore, to get the broadest search to try to find all possible records for your subject, Less is More. It is best practice to run the Criminal Package by name only. If your subject has a common name like Smith, you may need to narrow the scope of the search by adding more information, like a state. You can also select to enable exact name match, if you only want the exact name you entered to be returned, and no partial name matches or spelling variations.
Running by name only, or name & state, can find and return any possible records that may not have a date of birth provided. As with any pointer data received from a database search, you will want to verify the record with the reporting jurisdiction to confirm if it is your subject.
Another benefit to running the Criminal Package, is that it reveals a button to run a bonus Incarceration Search on your subject for no additional cost.
The Incarceration Records search connects to an entirely different set of data sources. It works opposite of our other criminal searches. On the Incarceration Search, you must enter a date of birth with the name, but these sources can still return records that may have a partial or missing DOB. Incarceration Records doesn't just have records for people who are currently incarcerated. It can contain information from any time that a person has been booked, along with if they were released or not.
Other criminal records searches to try, that are not covered in the above searches:
- Federal Criminal Docket - to check if your subject is involved with any federal cases. It returns an index of the case, including the case name and case number, not the full docket report. This search is name match only.
- Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) - to see if your subject is on any watch lists. Use "Ctrl F" to search the coverage i for any specific list. This search is name match only.
- Delayed Searches - Onsite County Criminal and Onsite State Criminal - to check for criminal records in areas that we may not have in our instant search coverages, or to check for any cases that may still be pending in court.
These are general tips when looking for criminal history. If you have further questions, please call us at (877) 723-2689 or email custserv@tracers.com. We love to help!