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NATIONAL CRIMINAL PROFILE REPORT
A true, accurate and comprehensive nationwide criminal record search is NOT possible, as there is no central repository for all federal, state and county level felony and misdemeanor convictions avaialabe in the USA.
 Recently, a new type of pre-employment background check called the National Criminal Profile Report (NCPR) has became available. Various levels of information is collected from all the states and DC, and the number of records in the proprietary NCPR databases ranges to as many as 245 million. View the jurisdictional coverage.
While those numbers may sound impressive, it is not prudent to utilize the National Criminal Profile Report as the primary means of checking for criminal records. This search is a "locator" device designed to perform a broad search to identify jurisdictions in which an applicant potentially has a criminal record. Additionally, the use of database criminal records are not legal in California.
Criminal Justice System Basics
There are four different kinds of records, all of which are all referred to as "criminal records."
1. Arrest Records; law enforcement records of arrests.
2. Criminal Court Records; local, state or federal records.
3. Corrections Records; prison records.
4. State Criminal Repository Records; statewide records made up of arrest records, criminal court records, correction records and Sex Offender State Registries
The four types of criminal records originate from different parts of the criminal justice system. When someone is arrested the arresting agency completes an arrest report, which becomes an arrest record. Then, the defendant is arraigned and tried in criminal courts. These records are referred to as criminal court records. At the conclusion of the trial, the case will either be dismissed or the defendant will be convicted.
There is no such thing as a compliant, comprehensive and
nationwide criminal conviction records check available to the public.
When a conviction occurs, there are several possible sentences. For example, the defendant may have to perform community service, pay a fine, or might be placed on probation. Sometimes the defendant will be sentenced to incarceration. When an individual is incarcerated for a misdemeanor, they usually will be sent to county jail rather than state prison. In a felony conviction the defendant may be sent to either county jail or state prison. Generally only the most violent felons, serious drug abusers, and repeat offenders are sent to state prisons. Records of imprisonment in state prison are called corrections records. Arrest records, criminal court records, and correction records are sent to the state criminal repository.
The Mythical Nationwide Criminal Check
While the National Criminal Profile Report sounds extremely good, the reality is that there is no such thing as a nationwide criminal records check. The FBI maintains a database called the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which is not truly nationwide and does not include most misdemeanors. Many records never make their way to the NCIC because the records must be sent from the county to the state and from the state to the FBI, and frequently there are breakdowns in the process. Nevertheless, the NCIC database is the closest thing that we have to a national criminal database, and it is far more comprehensive than a proprietary National Profile Report. The NCIC is only available to law enforcement agencies while in the investigation of a crime, and generally does not include the final disposition of the cases it contains. It was not created for employment background screening and it is not suitable for that purpose; in fact it is a federal crime to access the NCIC under false pretenses.
The a large amount of the data included in the NCPR is made up of corrections records. It is very important to remember that only the most serious criminals are sent to state prison. Since the NCPR does not include all misdemeanors, most of these records would never be found through a NCPR search. The National Criminal Profile Report also includes data from state criminal repositories, corrections records, county criminal court records, traffic records, and sex offender records. Many statewide repositories do not contain records from all counties, as the counties often fail to send records to the state repository. (coverage list)
 The majority of criminal convictions do not involve state imprisonment. Fines, restitution, probation, or time in a county jail are the most common outcomes - and felons receiving this type of sentence would not necessarily be included in the databases. Misdemeanor convictions (drunk and disorderly, assault, petty theft, etc.) are not contained in the vast majority of these records.
There is another serious problem with the NCPR --the data is “stale.” Typically the databases are updated only every six months, or even less frequently. For this and other reasons, the National Criminal Profile Report alone is not compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for employment evaluation purposes. HIRE-SAFE offers the National Profile Report with the understanding that it is to be used only with a FCRA-compliant search, as a tool to throw out a geographically "wider net" than a county criminal check. Furthermore, many records found within the NCPR do not contain a secondary identifier such as the subjects’ date of birth, making positive identification difficult with common names.
The National Criminal Profile Report does comply with FCRA when used simply as a prescreening locating tool to "generate leads" and when records found are verified in their local county courthouse for accuracy. It is this purpose alone that HIRE-SAFE utilizes the NCPR.
DON’T BE FOOLED!
Using database criminal reports ONLY is NOT legal
in California for hiring or tenant suitability purposes.
There are NO database searches that contain sufficient information for employment or tenant suitability decisions for California based companies and residents. ALL CRIMINAL RECORDS FOUND IN DATABASE SEARCHES MUST BE FIRST VERIFIED BY COUNTY COURT RECORDS PRIOR TO TAKING ADVERSE ACTION. The employer is legally responsible for violations of this state law, and fines can be heavy.The employer is legally responsible for violations of this state law, and fines are heavy. Read the California Code Section here.
The Bottom Line
There is no substitute for a tightly focused county criminal court search conducted in the locations where the individual has lived. A county criminal check should be requested in conjunction with a Social Security number verification, which identifies the counties that should be searched for criminal records.
The net is smaller, but it is tightly woven and directed where the applicant has most likely left a record that needs to be investigated.
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