Criminal Background Investigations

Court Records. These are the best way to verify if a criminal action has been initiated against someone. The main problem with searching these records is the cost. The Texas county courts are not connected by computer and no statewide database of cases in available, meaning a search would have to be done in each county. We recommend that this be done in each county where the subject has shown current and prior residency.

Texas Department of Public Safety. The Texas D.P.S. keeps a record of all criminal activity which is in the form of a searchable database. A search can be done immediately and is rarely off-line. The problem with this database is that the D.P.S. relies on the courts and municipal police departments to submit this information to them. This costs money to compile and process and our experience would indicate that this is not being done as quickly or efficiently as it should be. In some cases, we have found capital crimes from years ago where the person is in prison in Texasnot being reported to. It is also very important to know that the information provided about the person being searched MUST be accurate or a false negative can be obtained.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice. This source has an excellent database of everyone who has served time in a prison or otherwise been remanded to their supervision. It gives good detail about the crime and sometime even pictures of the criminal. The only weaknesses with this source is that criminals who are not sentenced to prison time do not show up in this database and sometimes with more common names or limited information, confirmation cannot be made.

United States Federal Courts. This source contains records of all Federal Criminal Convictions in the U.S. Federal Court system. Unlike counties and states, this database is searchable throughout the entire United States.

Arrests. Some data from Texas arrest records at the county jail level can be obtained legally through a private source. This information is excellent for determining if someone was arrested and processed at one of the available county jails. This source does not have access to all Michigan county arrest records and some criminals are not processed at the county jail level, but it is an excellent source to assist us in where to look further.