reasearch criminal background

Apologies if this is posted to the wrong section.

This isn't related to any specific conspiracy area,
just more general research.

I've seen a lot of adverts on the inet for researching
criminal backgrounds on people. Whats the process
on this over the internet? Is a person or company
with access just charging money for an otherwise
public file? I would like to research public court records
without paying $30.

[edit on 21-6-2005 by zaisheng]

You can try Googling your state's department of corrections... For example, I googled "Illinois department of corrections" and I got a link to the idoc site, then I clicked on "inmate search" on the left and got this : INMATE SEARCH . But thats only for IL tho. You can also google " sexual offenders list" and maybe get that too. Keep in mind they only keep online records for a limited period of time (for the department of corrections anyway), then they get turned over to just a paper file.
Note: In illinois you can search the sexual offenders list and get the names addressess and sometimes pictures of felons. You can even search by zip code or city.

What state and county are you wanting to search. I have a collection of links I could pass on to you.

Take whatever information obtained with a healthy dose of skepticism. It may or may not be accurate.

I sent in my money to an internet firm that advertised 'find out everything about someone" to dig up what they could on me.

My current street address was right, but wrong city. Phone number was right with wrong area code, and the area code did not match the wrong city either.

Past residences were interesting. They had my address correct when I was attending high school, which was the correct school and date of graduation. Then I had a honorable discharge from the Army (wrong -- did not enter the service, medical rejection). After that I was working in a machine shop in Texas while living in Des Moines, IA. The daily commute must have been a killer (both are wrong). A part time job for a medical supply company was correct, even though I was paid in cash under the table. Some past jobs were correct, some were not.

Criminal history was all wrong. Two speeding tickets in Pennsylvania (never been there). Real traffic citations did not show up, and neither did an real unfortunate indiscretion in my early twenties.

No college education listed, even though I was a member of two honor societies and in an academic Who's Who.

All things considered I feel better now. The information was so full of inaccuracies my 'file' is worthless.


[edit on 21-6-2005 by dave_54]

I tried one of these called either web-detective or net-detective (can't remember what it was called). Anyway, it cost me $30 for unlimited use. I was very dissappointed the only free information it gave me was a lot of useless links to already existing government websites that is already available for public to puruse. Any idiot can go to their local county website and look up court dockets for criminal cases, if they have a website. It did not give any access to internal court reporting computer systems. It did not have a comprehensive search that someone like a private detective or investigator could provide. It did not have access to a database like Lexus-Nexus. It really sucked. It did however have many useless pages for pay sites to give you more critical information, like DMV records, birth records, military records and such.

I think most of these services are about the same. I cannot tell you if you would find an honest site that will give you really useful information without paying more money. Your best bet would probably be to do your own leg work and research about someone and follow the paper trail of where they have lived and look up county criminal records. Also go to your State Dept. of Corrections website and if they have been in the slammer, it will probably show up there as well. I know my state - Ohio - has information about current inmates complete with pictures.

Hope this helps.