Category Archives: Public Records

Eddie, a new visitor to the Search Systems website, wrote to us today with a question about Professional Licenses in New Jersey. Eddie is thinking of putting his house on the market but has a few qualms about working with realtors based on his last tumultuous property sale. He wanted to know where he could review real estate licenses to be sure his new realtor was qualified, licensed, and had no black marks on his or her record. Was that information available to the public and could it be found on the Internet?

I told Eddie he was in luck. License information is provided in New Jersey, and in most other states, through free online databases. By using our “By Type of Record” tool in the Free Public Records Locator box on our home page, we selected “Licenses” and then selected “New Jersey” from the list of states on the Professional Licenses page. We scrolled through the many pages of licenses listed there for New Jersey – a total of 113. On Page 2 Eddie found a link for Real Estate licenses and another for Real Estate – Disciplinary Actions.

Eddie was able to verify the licenses for a few potential realtors, and he also checked to be sure they did not have disciplinary actions on file. When Eddie returned to the New Jersey licenses directory page, he discovered many other types of licenses he could verify. Contractors, electricians, home inspectors… even locksmiths and alarm installation companies. He was determined to screen everyone that he might hire to fix up his property prior to the listing.

Arrested June 3, 2010, but you may not have noticed. The incident did not garner much press. If a reporter had uncovered this arrest record and printed a story about the Lakers Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being incarcerated in Columbia County, Georgia, he or she would have been forced to print an embarrassing retraction.

Why? Go to the Georgia criminal records directory and click on the link for “Columbia County Inmates,” you’ll see that a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was arrested on June 3, 2010 for parole violation. If you look at the details, you’ll see the age of this suspect is 25. The very sad looking character is clearly not the same individual as the Lakers’ skyhook king who made wrap-around sports glasses look chic.

This illustrates just how imperative it is that when you perform a criminal records search that you check the age or birth date of the subject. Many names are common and even a highly unique name like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is not unique enough.

Another example is one of an unemployed man we’ll call George Smith who used our Premium criminal records search to perform a check on himself. He wanted an exact search of his name and exact date of birth, so he could print the No Results Found page to exonerate himself. George’s problem was that he applied for a job and when the employer ran a registered offender check, a record appeared for another George Smith born the same year. The employer didn’t bother to look at the finer details such as exact date of birth, and simply assumed the applicant was a Level 3 Offender. As our George put it, “They ran me out of their office with a stick!”

Researchers can cause damage and confusion if they mistakenly match a criminal record to the wrong person. So how do you avoid making this mistake? First of all, know the date of birth of the person you are searching. If you find records that don’t include a date of birth (many jurisdictions omit that information from their results), you need to dig further, perhaps at the county court itself, to either find the date of birth, or other information that will allow you to determine whether or not the record matches your subject. Often records will include an address or a physical description of the person.

In addition to our nationwide criminal records database we also offer an index to local government databases such as courts, sheriff departments, and corrections departments. Using those tools, you can research at the source to get the full truth.

In these blog posts we’ve shared several real-life examples of how the services at Search Systems can be used for public records research, but did you know that a fictitious detective uses our site as well?

Follow the investigations of Crispin Darke, Thrilling Detective, via his online blog at Darke Detective. Not only does Crispin lead you through his mystery cases chapter by chapter in first-person detective noir… he also teaches investigative techniques using the Internet. Every chapter has database links and explanations about how and when to use those public record databases.

Modern detectives know that solving a case requires more than door-to-door interviews, stake-outs, and car chases (although Crispin has his share of those). It also requires a contemporary knowledge of public record databases, especially those found online. Each time Crispin performs his research, you get to look over his shoulder as he finds another piece of the puzzle.

We think Crispin is humorous, thrilling, and well-informed. But don’t take our word for it. Read Crispin’s breakthrough story “N is for Knife” or the follow-up case, “The Hobart Ghost” and you’ll be entertained while learning some cool P.I. tricks you can do on your computer.

This is one case where the expression “Don’t try this at home” does NOT apply.

Some of our users have asked us about the links found on our Popular Databases page and our Useful Databases page. Why do these categories exist when all the other links are organized geographically or by category?

We created the “Popular Databases” page (found under our Categories menu) as for databases that people find most helpful and we wanted to give them a home of their own for easy access. Examples include: the Active Duty Military Status finder; Area Codes by City; ATM Locators; Birth Records; County Finder; the Social Security Death Index; Ellis Island Immigration Records; and Worldwide Phone Directories.

We also created a page called “Useful Databases” in our United State Nationwide menu. This is used for useful nationwide database that don’t easily fit into categories. Rather than shoehorn them into not-so-obvious directory pages where they’d be hidden to the user, we wanted to highlight them by giving them a special page. Examples include: Better Business Bureau Reports; Famous Graves; Home Prices nationwide; Offbeat Roadside Attractions; and Employer Tax ID Numbers.

If you know of useful databases that we don’t have, drop us a line here: Contact us. We’ll give you credit for the submission in the database description.