Checking criminal backgrounds

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, May/Jun 2004 by Edds, Carolyn

When backgrounding an individual, some information is available for free or at minimal cost on the Internet. This information includes federal court records and inmate locators.

Most federal appellate, district and bankruptcy court indexes can be searched electronically through a service called Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Many of the courts can be searched via the PACER Web site at http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov Some of the courts require a direct dial using specific software. Links to the Web sites are available at http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/links.pl or www.uscourts.gov/links.html and a list of the modem numbers by court is available at http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/modem.pl At http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/links.pl, courts with an "IMG" or "CM/ECF" icon next to them have document images available.

Registration is required to use PACER and there is a 7 cent-per-page charge for using the service, seven cents per page. A page is defined as 54 lines of data, not pages viewed, printed or downloaded. For more information on the page definition, visit http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/faq.html#GPlO. For courts visited through the dial-up service, 60 cents a minute is charged. If the dial-up service is used, charges will be assessed by the minute. No page charges will occur. If the total charges are $10 or more, bills are sent each quarter. However, if the total charges during a calendar year are less than $ 10, then the balance is deleted.

PACER includes information about parties and participants, including judges, attorneys and trustees; a compilation of case information; chronology of case events; claims registry; a listing of new cases each day; appellate court opinions; judgments or case status and types of documents filed for certain cases. Many courts offer imaged copies of documents.

In the bankruptcy court indexes, search by party name, case number, social security number or tax identification number. In the district court indexes, search by party name, case number or a filing date range and in the appellate court indexes search by case number or party name.

The U.S. Party/ case Index is a good place to start because all courts available in PACER are searched at once. However, be aware that not all courts are available. The list of courts not included in this index is available at http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/ miss-court.pl. Also, check each court individually to sec which years are included in the index. If no results are returned from the search, it may not mean that no cases exist. It means no cases exist for the years and courts included in the index searched. If results are found in the search of the U.S. Party/ case Index, visit the Web site of the particular court or courts to find more information.

Another site that can be helpful is the Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator, available at http: //inmateloc.bop.gov/locatordocs/home.jsp. This database contains information about all federal inmates beginning in 1982. It is searchable by name (first and last name must be included in the search) or identification number. The number may be a register number, DCDC number, FBI number or INS number.

Search result information includes name, current age, inmate-register number, race, sex, projected release date, date released, location and phone number for that location. If the inmate is known to be deceased, this information is included in the date-released field. A complete list of addresses and phone numbers for federal prisons and community corrections centers is available at www.bop.gov/ facilnot.html.

To find information about federal inmates released before 1982 or more information on the search results, visit the FAQ at http://inmateloc.bop.gov/ locatordocs/faqjiome.html.

Finally, several sites contain lists of links to inmate locators at the state or local level. One way to find these sites is through Google. Search for: "inmate locator" Florida California Vermont Idaho. This searches for Web pages containing "inmate locator" as an exact phrase and the states listed. (Searching for states all around the country is more likely to turn up a state-by-state listing rather than a regional site.) Search results will include pages that have a list of "inmate locators" by state. Some of these state inmate locator sites include www.corrections.com/links/viewlinks.asp?Cat=20 or www0 .0 virtualgumshoe0 .0 com0 /0 gator400 .0 htm or www.lawresearchservices.com/firms/torts/inmatesearch.htm. be sure the inmate locator databases you search are on the Web site of a government agency.

Good luck with your backgrounding research.

BY CAROLYN HDDS

THE IRE JOURNAL

Carolyn Edds is the Eugene S. Pulliam research director for IRE. She directs the IRE Resource Center and helps maintain Web resources.