How to Get a Criminal History Report for Free

With the rising number of criminal offenses every day, it is only natural to perform criminal background checks on someone to obtain a criminal history report. Whether it is a colleague, a newly hired employee, or someone you have been dating, learning a little about their past is only a measure to ensure your safety.

Now, not everyone is a criminal who's walking free on the streets, but it is still advisable to resort to such measures for your personal security. Lately, a lot of places are advertising services that offer a free criminal history report, which means they help check criminal records without any charge.

Here we will discuss the various ways of obtaining such information about someone, and whether or not it is a suitable measure.

As rosy as it sounds, there are certain federal and state laws that govern the practice of obtaining someone's criminal history. Ensure that you are aware of these laws before you try to learn about someone's criminal background.

You will require some details of the person you want to conduct the check on. This will include his name, date of birth, place of birth, address, and social security number (SSN). Now, even though this is a 'free' report on someone's criminal history, you are going to have to pay some charges for it.

Nothing is free in this world, and believing that you can obtain sensitive, personal information about someone at no cost at all is a little optimistic. Of course, when a company advertises its services as free, no charges are going to be explained then. However, expect at least some charge in the future.

There are three scenarios in which you may have to pay for the report even if it has been promoted as free.

• If a company performs a criminal background check for free, it is likely that they charge you for the expenses involved in obtaining the information, but not their own services.

• Charges may be taken for the information or data revealed about the person in question, but not for the time spent in compiling the data.
• If you resort to a free online criminal background check, you may be given general information about the criminal history of the person in question for free, and may have to pay a charge for detailed records.

In some cases, when someone is convicted of serious crimes or felony, information pertaining to the case is stored under public criminal records. You may obtain this information from your local courthouse database after filling in an application and applying for access to this information. This application may be accepted or denied.

Even if it is accepted you will be given limited access to information regarding the person in question. Furthermore, this process is time-consuming because in most cases, it is not organized. Finding it is your job which may take days together.

An important point to keep in mind is that if the person you want to get this information about lives in another city, you may have to go there and find information about her/him. You may also visit the website of the Federal Prisons Bureau to get basic criminal records pertaining to the person.

Information obtained from a free background check may or may not be authentic. Usually a service that is not charged may not make an effort to find out if the information collected and offered to you is completely accurate. Information from such unreliable sources may then cause further trouble.

Even if you try to conduct a search yourself to obtain criminal history report, know that it is a laborious task, and that you will have to be highly motivated if you want to achieve success in this project. Finally, depending on the kind of information you are looking for, you may make use of such sources to conduct a background check for criminal records.

If it is just basic records, then the websites that offer such services may prove useful. Perhaps after you find information on this website, you may feel the need to conduct a detailed search. In such a case, it is always advisable to hire a reliable source to get the necessary information.