October 2024
In today’s interconnected world, ensuring comprehensive background checks has become essential for businesses, landlords, and organizations alike. When it comes to background screening, there are two popular methods: multi-state checks and county-level checks. Each approach offers different advantages, but understanding the potential gaps in coverage is critical to making the best choice for your screening needs.
Here’s a closer look at how multi-state and county-level background checks differ and why relying solely on one method may lead to incomplete or inaccurate information.
Multi-State Background Checks: The Broad Overview
Multi-state checks are often marketed as an efficient way to screen candidates across a wide range of jurisdictions. They pull from multiple sources, including state and some national databases, making them an attractive option for companies looking to cast a wide net. Some of the advantages of multi-state checks include:
Speed and Efficiency: Multi-state checks can return results quickly, as they gather information from numerous jurisdictions in a single report.
Broad Coverage: They provide a general criminal history overview across many states and federal databases, which is valuable for identifying any major red flags.
However, multi-state checks can fall short when it comes to completeness. While they are broad, they do not delve deeply into specific areas, often missing local offenses and recent charges that may not yet be reported to larger databases. Because not all counties or states consistently report to these national databases, multi-state checks can miss significant details, especially for smaller or out-of-state jurisdictions.
County-Level Checks: Digging into the Details
County-level checks, on the other hand, provide a more granular view by focusing on records within a specific county where the individual has lived, worked, or has known connections. These checks go directly to the source—the county court system—where most criminal cases are first recorded. Here’s what makes county-level checks valuable:
Depth of Information: County checks are typically the most accurate and up-to-date records available because they source directly from the courts.
Revealing Local Offenses: Many offenses, especially misdemeanors or smaller infractions, may only be recorded at the county level and never make it into larger state or federal databases.
Recent Records: Since county courts are the first places new offenses are recorded, county-level checks are often more current than multi-state databases, which may experience lags in updates due to reporting delays.
However, county-level checks are generally more time-intensive and costly, as they require searching individual counties, often manually. Additionally, a single county-level check will only cover records in that specific area, so multiple checks are needed if an individual has lived or worked in several locations.
The Gap in Coverage: Where Multi-State and County Checks Miss the Mark
For businesses or landlords, the most significant concern is that both multi-state and county-level checks, on their own, can leave blind spots in a candidate’s background:
Reporting Gaps: Not all counties report criminal records to national databases. If an individual has a criminal history in a non-reporting county, it may not appear in a multi-state check. This means a multi-state check might miss cases such as DUIs or misdemeanors that are only recorded locally.
Timeliness: Due to the lag in updates from county to state or national databases, there is often a delay before recent offenses appear in multi-state checks. For example, if a candidate has a recent conviction in a local county court, it might take weeks or months before that information is reflected in a multi-state database.
Legal Compliance: Some regulatory standards require specific levels of detail in background checks. Multi-state checks might not meet these requirements due to their lack of thoroughness, making county-level checks necessary for certain sensitive positions.
Best Practice: Combining Multi-State and County-Level Checks
To address these gaps, many background screening companies, such as Western Verify, recommend a hybrid approach that combines both multi-state and county-level checks. This approach can offer the broad coverage of a multi-state check while diving deeper into specific counties when additional verification is needed. Western Verify, for example, uses multi-state databases to screen broadly and then supplements this with targeted county-level searches in key locations where the applicant has lived or worked. This dual-layered approach provides a fuller picture of the applicant’s history, reducing the risk of overlooking critical details.
Final Thoughts: Why Going Deeper Matters
Relying on multi-state checks alone might save time, but the potential for missed details can have serious consequences for businesses or property managers. On the flip side, only conducting county-level checks can be costly and labor-intensive. The best approach balances efficiency with thoroughness. By combining both methods, organizations can maximize the strengths of each and close the gaps in coverage.
Whether you’re screening tenants, employees, or volunteers, understanding the limitations of each type of check can help you make more informed decisions. For many, working with a comprehensive service like Western Verify ensures that critical information doesn’t slip through the cracks, providing the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re making fully informed choices.
Sources:
Certifix Live Scan. “BCI vs. FBI Background Checks
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PeopleTrail. “Di
PEOPLETRAIL
Name-Based Checks and Fingerprint Checks.” PeopleTrail.
JDP Background Screening. “Background Checks vs. Private Investigators.”
PREEMPLOYMENT SCREENING DIRECTORY
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PreEmployment Directory. “Differentiating Between Pre-Employment and Investigation Background Checks.” PreEmployment Directory.
- When it comes to screening, a thorough approach leads to safer communities, smarter hiring, and a more secure world.