Free Criminal Background Checks

Free criminal background checks are accessible to those who want to research a criminal history on a person. People's reasons differ for wanting to do this. Maybe you have just met someone that you are feeling leery or suspicious about. Or perhaps you have someone either watching your kids or cleaning your home that you want to check out. This article will delve into a few methods that will help you to find the information that you are seeking.

For starters, let's go over the "truly" free criminal background checks method. If the person that you are researching has not had a history of moving a lot, this is certainly your cheapest (a.k.a. free) way. The reason for this is that the criminal background records in question (if they do in fact exist), can be found from a visit to your local police station or courthouse where the person currently lives in.

Your first stop should be at the police station as they will most likely have anything recent if there are any active cases pending. If this visit does not prove fruitful, go to your county courthouse. If you don't know where it is, ask your local police (as they make frequent visits there when involved in court cases involving police arrests). To save you a trip (and possibly some time), you can contact the court house by phone to see if the records are available online - as this is becoming a common thing today. Keep in mind, however that many states (such as Florida and California) and municipalities are beginning to charge for online access to records - making online free criminal background checks impossible. In this case, your best chance to review criminal background checks totally free would be to actually go to the courthouse where you will be able to review arrest records, jail records, DWI records, domestic assaults - any records that were created as a result of an arrest - at your leisure.

If you don't know enough about the person in question (other than their full name and current home address) - you will probably want to consider using a paid online criminal background checks service versus your own free criminal background check. The reason for this is that these services provide the ability to cross multiple city/county/state jurisdictions - making your chances for finding out any records related to illegal criminal activity much greater. They do charge a fee, however with the many services online today, prices are becoming quite competitive. And - with the availability of the internet to just about everyone today, it is still a cheaper option than employing the services of a private eye or investigator service that used to perform criminal background checks for a much higher fee.