The post-imprisonment life of a felon is full of hardships. Society doesn’t treat a felon and a civilian equally. The felony tag doesn’t get removed from a felon’s identity easily. Therefore, a felon tries his best to hide his felony record. He does so for several purposes. The purpose can be getting a job or renting a house. None of these is easy for a felon. So, the felon becomes bound to hide his identity for survival.
Interacting with ex-felons can be challenging for recruiters, house owners, and such people. While recruiting someone in your office, you need to know about the person’s authenticity. The same is applicable for interaction with a tenant.
So, what are the ways to detect felons?
Knowing a person’s background becomes hard when he tries to hide that. However, a recruiter or a landlord can’t take the risks of interacting with a felon.
Anyway, there are several ways to detect a person with a problematic background. In the US, hiding felony or criminal records is pretty hard. A recruiter or a landlord should know how to check an individual’s background.
This article is going to educate you about the ways to do so.
Contents
How Do You Know If A Person Is A Criminal?
1 Google
Google can be your helping hand in this process. However, Google doesn’t let you have access to the official records. But the search results show a lot of news articles and websites. Generally, a serious crime gets highlighted in most news portals in the US.
Google helps your find a lot of news articles about an individual. If he was involved in a serious offense, that must be highlighted in some news portals. So, Google search can be a simple solution for checking someone’s criminal history sometimes.
Anyway, you need to put the person’s complete name and relevant details in the search bar. That’s what navigates you to the appropriate news articles. Otherwise, Google will show up different confusing and irrelevant results. That might leave you confused at the end. So, input the correct name along with the right keywords for accurate results.
2 Multiple Search Engines
Never rely on a particular search engine entirely. A search engine might miss out on some critical information. Instead, consider trying as many search engines as you can. Besides Google, other search engines can also give your appropriate results.
These include:
- Bing
- Yahoo
- Firefox
Most people try searching for people using a single search engine. That’s what makes them miss significant search results.
3 Residential Details
A person’s previous residential location is very crucial in this case. Not all criminal cases are taken up to higher levels. Some minor criminal cases are dismissed in local judiciary courts as well. Such cases are not highlighted by the media.
So, you need to know the person’s previous addresses to track such records. The person’s phone number is a great option to locate his past residences. The area code in the phone number helps a lot to determine the locations. You can gather detailed information about the person from those places.
4 Background Checking Software
You can avail the services of background checking software too. Anyway, a paid software is a better choice than free software. Such software can provide all information about a person. A paid background checker scans the government records and databases. That’s how it brings up a person’s criminal records accurately. Generally, a paid background checker delivers accurate and evident results most of the time.
Some good background checkers include:
- Paycom
- Goodhire
- Checkr
5 Library
The libraries in the US are well-equipped with different databases and online libraries. You need to visit your local library for finding someone’s records. A convicted person must be enlisted in the Federal government’s criminal database. The criminal database gets updated regularly.
The library assistant can help you find the right results too. Anyway, you’re supposed to input adequate information to get the required results. Inputting accurate and detailed information gets your job done.
6 State Database
You can also check state-wise databases. Sometimes, the overall database misses out on some specific cases. Also, some minor crimes are overlooked by government officials. They don’t include those crime records in the US criminal database. Never forget to check the state-wise database after checking the main database. The state-wise database enlists all sorts of criminal records of a particular state.
7 Local Database
Apart from the national and state-wise database, go through local jurisdiction databases too. These databases keep track of the smallest crimes of different localities. So, checking these databases is mandatory for tracking someone’s records.
8 Local Court
You also have the option of contacting a local court. While checking a person’s background, reach his local court. You might have to submit an investigation request in that court. If that gets granted, the court officials will assist you with the individual’s legal records.
This is probably the best way to find out someone’s felony record. Anyway, this process includes certain fees. You have to bear those expenses for getting information from the court officials.
Check A Background
Apart from these techniques, there are some other convenient ways to check a person’s background. Besides the national crime database, the government maintains some other databases too.
Let’s check out what those important databases are-
1 National Sex Offender Pubic Website is a great source of information about sex offenders. All sex offenders across the country get enlisted on this website. If you’re suspecting someone is a sex offender, check him on this website. Specifically, recruiters should check this website before recruiting someone.
2 Another famous website is the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Inmate Locator. This website is a great helping hand for recruiters. This website lets you know if a person had been in prison after 1982. The website is almost 100% accurate and it rarely misses out on an imprisoned. So, you should consider checking this site before hiring someone.
3 Some convicts haven’t been arrested yet. But they have ongoing convictions on them. The Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanction List Search lets you know about such people. An un-sentenced convict can be tracked through this site easily.
These are the main ways and techniques to determine if a person is a felon or not. A recruiter’s responsibility includes checking these facts sincerely before hiring someone.
- Hiring a criminal-minded felon can damage a company’s reputation largely.
- Such a felon can be a great risk for his co-workers too.
- Besides that, such a person is a threat to the customers too.
- So, an employer must emphasize background checks before employing any employee.
Felons often lie about their backgrounds for securing their jobs. So, an employer needs to be conscious and considerate enough in the time of hiring.
Conclusion
Hiding a felony is next to impossible in the US nowadays. Still, some felons attempt to do such things. Hiding a criminal record is considered a punishable crime in the US. This kind of activity is categorized under fraudulent crimes. Call the police if a felon job-seeker is trying to defraud you by hiding his felony. Such an individual is an open threat to society.
Beware of such candidates always. Use the above-mentioned techniques to check an individual’s authenticity. This will also help you in hiring the right person for your company. We advise landlords and brokers to follow the same instructions as well.
