My first inclination was to have second thoughts.
About opening the Pandora's box implicit in this question: "Do you really know who people are?"
The question nags from a new website called CriminalSearches.com, which invites users to type in the name of any adult anywhere in the U.S. and see if the person has a criminal record. For free.
"We created CriminalSearches.com to help consumers make the most educated decisions about the people they let into their personal lives and the lives of their loved ones," said the company's president and CEO.
CriminalSeaches urges users to run criminal background checks on nannies, neighbors, teachers, acquaintances, locksmiths and even "hedge fund managers."
My safe and leafy New York City neighborhood is overrun with nannies, neighbors, teachers, acquaintances, locksmiths and hedge-funders. But among them, according to CriminalSearches, is a convicted sex offender, living on my block.
Or is he?
There's a fascination in first using CriminalSearches, but it fades after finding that most of the suspected scofflaws you think you might know have little more than traffic offenses against them, many of which are tantalizingly flagged on the site as criminal in nature.
But the site -- owned by PeopleFinders.com -- has other interesting features. Enter your address, and a "Neighborhood Watch" map reveals the crimes and identities of the people living around you -- the burglar on the next block, the assaulter on the route to your child's school, and the cocaine possessor around the corner.
And then there is the "Sex Offender Finder." I entered my address, and lo, they were found, in seeming abundance. A map pinpointed rapists and sexual abusers by location, with names, photos, and brief but disturbing descriptions of their crimes. Michael, Daniel, William, Eric, Richard, Donald, Antonio...15 in all, scattered beyond my greater neighborhood, including the one on my block whose victim was "less than 16 years of age."
The reaction from neighbors and parents about sex offenders in their midst is often anxiety, mixed with uncertainty. But how alarming the discovery might be in this case is eclipsed by another question: how accurate are the search results?
Toggling between CriminalSearches and PeopleFinders, I typed in various iterations of my name. Repeated searches yielded varying results: three criminal matches...zero matches...one match. But unlike the sex offenders or other people I checked, no details were provided. For that I would have to pay $27.95.
Adult criminal records have always been available free from the source: government agencies. They're part of what's called the "public record," meaning anyone -- the public -- has a right to review them, unless the documents are sealed or otherwise restricted by court order.
But the stumbling block was that the records had to be requested in person at the appropriate government office in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred, where the case went to court, or where a subject was arrested. That enormous logistical inconvenience guaranteed that few people beyond private eyes and document retrieval companies -- working for paying clients -- would crosscheck and ferret out the revealing information public records yield.
Now CriminalSearches.com has made much of that legwork and expense unnecessary. But the site "contains some mistakes," the New York Times reports. "Some records are incomplete, and there is often no way to distinguish between people with the same names if you don't know their birthdays (and even that date is often missing)."
When a Times reporter ran the name of a colleague through CriminalSearches, the system reported a "criminal offense," which turned out to be a speeding ticket. "I went to traffic school so this wouldn't appear on my record," the stunned colleague explained. "I'm in shock."
The easy availability of free public records has privacy experts concerned. Government records are notoriously inaccurate, they say, so when a person is wrongly listed in a database, the error is compounded by further dissemination online. They also warn that easy access to public records means easy access for identity thieves as well. And the long legal tradition of expunged records may be on the verge of extinction.
I paid the $27.95 to see my "criminal" record. What I received was a list of my prior addresses. No criminal convictions, no criminal cases, not even a traffic ticket. The fine print was more revealing than the 12 point font:
"Our data includes more than criminal records, such as civil filings and traffic and other minor offenses, so people listed may not be actual criminals. Also, not all criminal records result in conviction, nor do they all provide dispositions of guilt or innocence."
The disclaimer ends by noting that many public records should be "obtained from the source." And that leaves consumers with an enormous and little-understood responsibility.
So what of my neighborhood sex offender? Is he a victimizer, or the victim of an inaccurate and inconclusive criminal records report? I walked down the block to check his address. Nice building. Across the street from two private schools -- one a preschool, the other housing 6th through 12th grade students.
But the CriminalSearches report included no dates for conviction or residency. That's why the fine print -- obtaining public records "from the source" -- is so important.
For years as a producer for ABC News and CBS News, I searched public records in countless courthouses and government offices across America, in support of one story after another for 20/20, Primetime, 48 Hours, The CBS Evening News and other network news shows. From that experience I learned that when it comes to public records, there are no shortcuts for thoroughness and accuracy. I also learned that official records for sex offenders are among the easiest to access, through state government registries. Sure enough, the New York registry detailed my neighborhood offender's conviction, confirmed a date, and listed his address as current, verified less than a year ago.
So, do I really know who people are now? Not necessarily. But I'm definitely more aware of what the public record says about one of them.
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