Criminal checks

Today we look at the mother of all criminal record databases: the National Criminal Information Center, or NCIC. This is a compilation of various criminal record files that are maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The files of greatest interest for background check purposes tend to be the list of wanted persons, and individuals who have been “charged with serious and/or significant offenses”.

The NCIC actually has seven categories of people in its database. In addition to the two mentioned above, it includes:

• Missing persons.
• People the Secret Service believes are a danger to the President or other protected individuals.
• Members of violent gangs. Note that you do not have to be arrested to make it into this category.
• Members of terrorist organizations. As with gangs, proof is optional.
• Unidentified persons. Includes the dead, as well as the living who don’t know or can’t express who they are.

The criminal record files are backed up by fingerprints and other identifiers.

It is clear from looking at this list that NCIC is designed to cover a lot more than criminal convictions. There are also few restrictions from placing someone in the database. Since NCIC is effectively limited […]