What is Included in a Nationwide Background Check?
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “Nationwide” criminal background check because there is not a single centralized or standardized reporting system for the over 3800 criminal jurisdictions, plus hundreds of local, state, & federal agencies to report information into. What’s often termed a “Nationwide” check is a search across various public and private databases containing historical records. These records might not always be current or accurate. Hence, relying solely on a “Nationwide” criminal database search can be misleading, as the data might not have been recently updated or verified. However, these searches can be valuable in a broader background check, guiding researchers to local court records.
In fact the FCRA mandates that criminal “hits” recovered from a database must be verified at the local originating source before reporting, which is typically the local county court house where the record originated. Therefore, while “nationwide” criminal databases provide helpful hints, they shouldn’t be the primary source for background checks. Instead, they guide where to search for potential criminal records within local jurisdictions.”
