Criminal records (like civil records, bankruptcy filings, tax liens, workers compensation records and driving records) are a form of public record which is made available pursuant to the Freedom of Information clause of the US Constitution and various provisions in the individual State Constitutions as well. Varying interests have differing positions on what information should be made available in order to both satisfy the rights and privileges afforded constitutionally and at the same time protect the equally important individual right of privacy. As an area requiring careful consideration of divergent interests, a delicate balancing of interests is constantly being achieved. As the balancing of interests leans toward one direction (i.e. protecting a consumer’s right of privacy by preventing the disclosure of a date of birth in an otherwise public record), an equally important right is taken away in another direction (i.e. less public information is made available and therefore it is more difficult to protect the rights of an employer or school district or church or apartment complex seeking to provide a safe environment because you cannot identify whether the person named in the public record is the same person who is applying for employment, housing, licensing, or otherwise). Consequently, the world of electronic public record data access is a constantly changing arena that is impacted by policymakers at multiple levels including individuals operating in the judiciary, legislative, government, private and political sectors.
In the midst of a constantly changing arena, PeopleFacts has been consistent about sticking to its mission by being committed to implementing reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy in the information it provides, while also preventing unreasonable delays in the processing of consumer applications for employment, housing and/or volunteer opportunities. To that end, PeopleFacts receives public record updates for its criminal data-sets electronically as often as they are made available by the original courthouse sources for bulk purchase. Over 85% of our public record sources provide updates on a semi-monthly (every two weeks) or monthly schedule. However, some public record sources are more limited in their resources and therefore only update their records on a less frequent basis (i.e. quarterly or more). In an effort to further minimize the time between criminal data record updates, PeopleFacts is working with other industry leaders to develop additional methods of further reducing the time between the original source updates, while maintaining record integrity and not causing a delay to reporting. In nearly 25 states we are receiving real time updates from original courthouse sources which result in the most currently available information being transmitted instantly through our systems. The number of states and number of courthouse sources with this type of rapid update access are increasing and we will continue to pursue the addition of those real time updates to our database as they become readily available.
