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backgroundchecks.com upcoming data quality improvements

Written by Michael Klazema | May 1, 2012 4:00:00 AM

In a continuing effort to improve data accuracy and further reduce false positive matches in our instant criminal database, backgroundchecks.com will require the subject's full middle name or middle initial to conduct an instant criminal database search.

Improve data accuracy & further reduce false positive matches

Including the subject's full middle name or middle initial along with the other required elements: First Name, Last Name and Date of Birth; helps to narrow the possible records in the database for review, but does not automatically mean that the record found is the exact person for whom you are searching.

Before relying on any result, you should confirm that the record really matches your subject, including by checking all information in the record and using common sense.

Additional Search Filters

In addition to our latest database search improvements, we will continue to offer the following filtering options to help you further customize your search results:

  • Include Dates of Birth within 1, 2, 3 years of entered Date of Birth - This option helps when you are not sure of an exact date of birth. If you are unsure of a subject's exact date of birth, you can use this feature to increase the year range, thus increasing your results.
  • Include results that do not have a Date of Birth available - This option can help broaden your search. We receive our instant criminal data from hundreds of sources. Many of those sources do not always include date of birth. By default we exclude these records in your search. While we don't recommend assuming that these are a match for your subject, they can serve as good indicators of counties or states where you might want to perform additional searches.
  • Include similar names - This option will return more results because it is less strict. By default, we return only results that contain the exact name. For instance, "Jon" would not return results with the name "Jonathan", or "Jonas". However, you can choose to receive results that are similar name matches, and you would see results that matched "Jonathan" or "Jonas".