Meghan Martinsen, VP of Sales and Product Development
A lot of organizations are running what they think is a background check on their volunteers and staff. Churches, schools, nonprofits, youth programs. They pay $8, get a result back in seconds, and check the box. They haven’t actually checked anything. What they purchased is a National Criminal Database search. And while that sounds thorough (national, after all), it’s one of the most misunderstood products in this industry. I’ve spent nearly a decade in background screening, and the gap between what people think they’re getting and what they’re actually getting is staggering.
What a NatCrim Search Actually Is
A National Criminal Database (NatCrim) is a compiled, aggregated database built from criminal records collected from various state and county sources — some voluntarily submitted, some purchased, some scraped. It is not a live government database. There is no single “national criminal database” maintained by a government entity that contains all criminal records across all 50 states. What you’re searching for is incomplete data put together into a database. Some states contribute robust data. Others contribute almost nothing. Some counties uploaded records from decades ago and never updated them. Others have never participated at all. The coverage looks less like a safety net and more like a fishing net with half its threads missing.
The Problems Are Real
- Not all jurisdictions report to it. Significant portions of the U.S. court system do not report records to commercial databases. Many counties, particularly in states like California and New York, operate court systems that simply don’t share data with third-party aggregators. If someone committed a crime in one of those jurisdictions, that record may not show up in a NatCrim search at all.
- The data is historical, not current. Even where records are included, they reflect a snapshot in time, often years old. Courts update their records. Charges get expunged. Names change. Dispositions get amended. New charges appear. A NatCrim database is only as current as the last time that data was collected and loaded, which can lag by months or years. You may be looking at records that no longer accurately reflect someone’s legal standing. Even worse, you may be looking at an incomplete database that hasn’t added any cases since 2019. What about that rape or murder in 2023?
- The data is frequently inaccurate. Aggregated databases are notorious for data quality issues. Records get misattributed. Name variations cause false positives or missed matches. Incomplete information — a missing date of birth, an abbreviated name — leads to errors in both directions. You may flag someone who is completely clean or miss someone who isn’t.
- It doesn’t capture what you actually need. Most crimes that harm children and vulnerable people happen at the local level and live in local court records. A county courthouse is the ground truth. A NatCrim database is several steps removed from that. If you are screening volunteers who work with children, the only way to get close to an accurate picture is to search actual court records in the jurisdictions where that person has lived.
- It creates false confidence. This is the one that bothers me most. An organization runs an $8 check, it comes back clear, and they feel safe. They’ve done due diligence. But the check didn’t actually check what they needed to check. That false sense of security can be more dangerous than doing nothing, because at least if you’d done nothing, you’d know you hadn’t looked.
What a Real Screening Looks Like
A thorough background check includes a county criminal search in every jurisdiction where the subject has lived — not a database, but an actual search of live court records. It includes a federal district court search. It likely includes a sex offender registry search. A NatCrim can be a useful supplement, a pointer to jurisdictions you might not have otherwise known to search. But it should never be the whole answer. The difference in cost between an $8 database hit and a real courthouse search is often less than people expect. The difference in what you learn can be significant.
This Is a Mission Issue, Not Just a Compliance Issue
I work in this industry because background screening, done right, is genuinely protective. It matters. For churches, camps, youth organizations, and ministries, the people you’re screening have access to the most vulnerable members of your community. The screening you run is one of the most important tools you have to protect them. An $8 shortcut isn’t screening. It’s the appearance of screening. If your organization works with children or vulnerable adults, please talk to a qualified Consumer Reporting Agency. Ask what’s actually in the product you’re buying. Ask where the data comes from, how current it is, and what jurisdictions it covers. The question isn’t whether you can afford a real background check. It’s whether you can afford to skip one.