Conducting an Online Criminal Background Check

An online criminal background check allows each and every citizen of the U.S. a chance to identify the suspect individuals in their society. The method is cost effective and time efficient as the records can be obtained from home provided you have access to the Internet. An online criminal search is especially useful for:

* Protecting your friends and family from potential threats in society
* An organization to ensure that their prospective employees have a clean character
* Research by law students
* Official use by the attorneys, judges and law enforcement agencies

Procedure to Perform Online Criminal Background Checks

To perform a background check of any individual in your locality you must initially visit the official website of the state police of the county. For example, while a citizen of Indiana must visit http://www.in.gov/ai/appfiles/isp-lch/ , a person in Pennsylvania must visit https://epatch.state.pa.us/Home.jsp . Though the exact procedure varies from state to state, the basic steps are essentially the same.

* Initially you are required to register with the state police website. Upon successful registration they are provided with a unique user ID and password for future use. This step is not mandatory in all states.
* Usually you must agree to not misuse these records in any way.
* Next you need to fill out an online form such as https://epatch.state.pa.us/RecordCheckEntry.jsp?action=new providing your own personal details.
* Finally, you are required to enter the input information into the system. This typically includes the following fields:
-Last Name, First Name
-Birth Date
-IDOC# or SID#

Information Obtained from Online Criminal Background Checks

The general information obtained from an online criminal search usually includes the following:

* Personal details such as the name of the offender, sex, race, birth date, height, weight, eye color, hair color, place of birth and aliases if any.
* Case-related information such as the date of arrest, agency, charges for arrest, prosecutor, court details, filed charge, amended charge, disposition and sentence period also find places in the final result.
* Visit http://www.in.gov/ai/demoz/lch/8http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/results.html to get an idea about a sample report obtained after a successful online criminal search.

There are two basic responses to an online criminal search:

* "No Record" or a "No Hit" response – This happens when a database search returns no result with the corresponding name or Social Security number as submitted by the applicant.
* "Record Found"- In such cases all the above mentioned information is usually mailed to the applicant in a specified format.

A "pending" response also exists, and usually indicates a heavy load on the system. Generally all online requests are usually answered within 24 hours of submission. The fees charged vary from state to state and can range from $10 to $20 per record.