Helpful tips For Ordering Background Checks
- You never want to enter a suffix to the last name such as Jr, Sr.II, III etc.
This will rarely pull a record even if the applicant has one. In addition we should never use middle names when performing a state level criminal history as it reduces the chance of getting a match.
People are rarely arrested / booked with their First, Middle and Last name.
Even if we can think of several that have, the chances of the county or state not collecting or storing the middle name information, or better yet messing up a middle initial such as I instead of l (this is an i in upper case and an L in lower case but looks the same, are very good.
By putting a middle initial we literally take out one third of all of our data - it is even worse when we use the entire middle name as a search parameter.
- When "Jr." or "Sr." are used it gets worse still.
- The cardinal sin is the hyphen or dash.
If you enter Jones-Brown in as the last name and even though we know this person has a very lengthy record we will not see it
People generally try to hyphenate names when searching for criminal records because they are unsure which name to use to get any results (if any exist).
In reality the above example should be separated into two searches.
One with Jones and one with Brown.
These are technically AKAs' (also known as) or Aliases.
- Always use the date of birth.
Arrest records always use the date of birth as a reference.
This is the only way to get good results and certainly reduces the employers liability because they are acting in a "Prudent Manner" rather than just jumping through a liability hoop.