At ScreenToHire.com, our philosophy is to provide you with the tools to allow you to make the most informed decision possible.

While running a 'nationwide' search may sound extraordinary, in reality it is our least comprehensive and precise search available -- and as a result, we will not offer it alone. In the criminal-background / employee screening industry, there really is no such thing as a truly 'national' criminal history database, and we urge you to beware of any company who tells you otherwise. As such, we recommend that any nationwide criminal search be used as your investigative background launching point -- and used in conjunction with a county-specific search for any hits that may arise.

Some specific shortcomings with any nationwide search, used by itself, include:

1. Comprehensiveness -- A database can be incomplete for several reasons:
   1. not all statewide repositories contain complete records from all counties in the state.
   2. some of the reported records may be incomplete or lack sufficient detail about the offense - this makes your decision-making ability difficult.
   3. some databases or government agencies report only felonies.
   
   
   
2. Accuracy -- Remember, that all searches are subject to human error. The information we obtain is only as good as the data entrant's submission. If a county or correctional authority employee incorrectly spells a subject's name, or mistypes someone's age, it can lead to false negative reports.
   
   
3. Name Variations -- Applicant may have been arrested under a different first name or some variation of the first and middle name (e.g. a search for First Name: Jo Ann, Last Name: Smith comes up negative because the data entry lists Ann as the middle name rather than the first name). Furthermore, running nationwide searches may come up with false positives. Also, a female applicant may have a record under a maiden name.
   
   
4. Timeliness -- Each state, county, and agency may only enter data at intervals, creating a lag time. For example some States only update information quarterly. Consequently, the most current offenses are the ones least likely to appear in a search of nationwide or statewide databases -- which is why we HIGHLY recommend a corresponding county-search in conjunction with our address-history solution or nationwide criminal search where appropriate.