In our last installment we discussed how to obtain criminal records and how to conduct a thorough search in the areas the subject lives.

Now we are going to discuss how to obtain driving records on your subject. For the most part these records cost money but they cost less than if you had to purchase them from a background check company or some other source.

First of all you can’t just go around obtaining driving records for no reason. Most states consider them “private” records as opposed to public records like criminal or civil records are. The federal government also has a governing document called the DPPA or the Drivers Privacy Protection Act that sets forth rules on how when and for what purposes you can obtain driving and motor vehicle record information. If you are conducting this background check for employment purposes then the FCRA applies as well. In addition many states have laws and rules that govern these types of searches as well.

For the most part you can obtain motor vehicle records if:

1) It is a requirement of employment. For example if the person is going to be a delivery driver or will be transporting materials for your company.

2) An attorney that requires the record to defend his client.

3) Insurance companies that need to determine the risk factor in insuring a client.

5) Obtaining your own record to make sure of its accuracy or defending yourself in a court case.

There are certainly other reason for obtaining motor vehicle or driving records many of them dealing with a need to determine a persons identity for legal purposes. You can read more about them in the DPPA. Of course different states may have different laws so you will have to determine those laws individually.

To obtain our record I am going to give an example on how to obtain one from Washington State.
The first thing you need to do is to determine where to write and what documents you will need.
I found the website for Washington State Department of Motor Vehicles by Going to Google and typing exactly that.

Washington State has a nice search function on their site and I then typed in “Driving Records”.
The first result was the one I needed. Each state’s website may be different so you may have to navigate around a little to determine what you need.

Washington State has a good setup that explains how, when and why you can obtain these records.

From The Site: How to get another person’s driving record
The process depends on the type of record you want. The steps for requesting a copy of a driving record are listed with each type of record below. For more information about driving records, please see Frequently asked questions

You will need to download the request form and fill it out and send in the appropriate fees.

In most cases in most states you will need to have a signed release from the subject that you are conducting the check on. As stated previously you will need a permissible purpose to conduct the check.

Now granted because of the fees these checks aren’t exactly free but it could save you some money.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling and stay tuned for our next installment on how to verify someones previous employment.

Ok, many people on the Internet search for "free background checks". Most places that offer free background checks make you pay at some point. I am going to explain how you can do a check for free (for the most part) on yourself or someone else.

Let’s clear the air here, if you are going to be running a background check then please follow all state and federal laws pertaining to them. For example if you are conducting the check for employment purposes then please follow the guidelines of the FCRA. Do not take this lightly as you can get into a whole heap of trouble.

Let’s start with the criminal record check. The best way to do this, as I have said before, is to go through the county courts where the person has lived. If you have the persons last address then check that county and the surrounding counties in that area I will give an example. Let’s say I want to conduct a criminal record check on my daughters new boyfriend and I know that he is from Cleveland, Ohio. I went to http://www.ask.com/ and typed in Ohio County Maps. I happen to know that Cleveland, Ohio is located in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Ask.com gave me a good county map of Ohio and from there I can determine the closest counties around Cuyahoga. Check out a copy of the map here http://www.dot.state.oh.us/map1/cntymap.asp .

The reason I want the closest counties to Cuyahoga is because I am going to be checking them for criminal records on our subject as well. Why, you ask? Well because most people that commit crimes tend to do so within their comfort zone, meaning within a certain distance of their house.

So from our example we can see that Lake, Geauga, Summit, Medina and Lorain Counties all surround our target county.

Next we need to figure out what court house we are either going to call or check online. Most courthouses are online these days and you can find a good list of them here http://www.crimcheck.com/freerecords.htm .

Ok, I now have My subjects name, the county he lives in and the surrounding counties of the county he lives in and a list to find the court houses in those counties. Now we need to find out if he has a criminal record. In this instance I used the name Michael Smith. Click the image at the top of this post for the example. As you can see the results all have addresses by them, that is one way to determine that you have the right subject.

Now you can go to all of the other counties on your list and do the same thing. Warning: As you can see from our example there is more than one Michael Smith. Make sure that you have the right subject before you start making accusations or using the results as evidence.

You can even go one step further and check for misdemeanors within the city courts of the counties that your are checking. I would normally just check the city where the subject lives and the county seats of the surrounding counties. If you have comments or questions please feel free to post them here.

I will be covering motor vehicle records and driving records in my next article so stay tuned!

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Kroll Risk Consulting has released it’s “hit ratio” report and trends seem to be pointing upward when finding discrepancies in employment screening. For instance criminal record hits are up from 8.5% to 9.1% from last year. Is it because more people are committing crimes? That could be part of it. It could also be that from year to year better and more information becomes available. It also seems that driving record and employment verification hits are up as well. Nearly 50% of all applicants had at least one discrepancy on their previous employment list. This just goes to show you can never be too careful.