Report of the National Task Force on the Commercial Sale of Criminal Justice Record Information SEARCH The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics This report was prepared by SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, Francis X. Aumand III, Chairman, and Ronald P. Hawley, Executive Director. This report was produced as a product of a project funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, under Cooperative Agreement No. 96-BJ-CX-K010, awarded to SEARCH Group, Incorporated, 7311 Greenhaven Drive, Suite 145, Sacramento, California 95831. Contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Bureau of Justice Statistics or the U.S. Department of Justice. Copyright © SEARCH Group, Incorporated, dba SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, 2005. Contents Executive summary ............................................................................................................................vi Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1 A. Background checks post-September 11 ...............................................................................................1 B. Role of the National Task Force ............................................................................................................2 1. Structure of the commercial information industry............................................................................2 2. Laws, regulations, policies, and practices that impact commercial vendors and end-users of criminal justice information...........................................................................................3 3. Broader public policy issues associated with criminal background checks....................................3 Part I. The commercial criminal justice record information industry .......................................5 A. Types of personal information sold by commercial vendors............................................................5 1. Criminal justice record information...................................................................................................5 2. Other information................................................................................................................................6 B. Industry size and scope ...........................................................................................................................7 1. Key industry members........................................................................................................................7 2. Number of records ..............................................................................................................................9 C. Commercial vendor business models....................................................................................................9 1. Compilation of reports........................................................................................................................9 a. “Runners”....................................................................................................................................9 b. Bulk data purchases ..................................................................................................................10 2. More on bulk purchases of criminal justice information................................................................11 3. Compiler versus reseller ...................................................................................................................12 4. Customer base ...................................................................................................................................12 5. Prices..................................................................................................................................................12 a. Factors impacting vendor pricing ............................................................................................12 b. Vendor pricing examples...........................................................................................................14 c. Point of comparison: Report pricing from State criminal history repositories.....................14 6. Identification/Record matching........................................................................................................15 a. Establishing identity ..................................................................................................................15 b. Identity in the criminal justice context .....................................................................................17 c. Vendor practices with respect to name-plus-identifier checks ...............................................18 d. Vendors and fingerprint-based checks.....................................................................................18 D. End-uses of criminal justice record information obtained from commercial vendors ..............19 1. Employment screening .....................................................................................................................19 2. Volunteer screening ..........................................................................................................................19 3. Tenant screening ...............................................................................................................................20 4. Media .................................................................................................................................................20 5. Immigration-related checks..............................................................................................................20 6. Fraud investigation or prevention ....................................................................................................21 7. Licensing ...........................................................................................................................................21 8. Due diligence.....................................................................................................................................21 9. Prenuptial analysis ............................................................................................................................21 10. Marketing ........................................................................................................................................21 11. Accountability .................................................................................................................................21 ii 12. Litigation research ..........................................................................................................................21 13. Opposition research ........................................................................................................................22 14. Voter eligibility ...............................................................................................................................22 15. Curiosity ..........................................................................................................................................22 16. Registered traveler programs .........................................................................................................22 E. Sources of criminal justice record information for commercial vendors .....................................22 1. The courts ..........................................................................................................................................23 2. Corrections departments ...................................................................................................................24 3. State criminal history repositories....................................................................................................25 4. Relative “value” of data from repositories, courts, and corrections departments.........................27 a. Repository data..........................................................................................................................27 b. Court and corrections data.......................................................................................................28 F. Factors in the growing sale of criminal justice information by commercial vendors .................28 1. Automation of criminal justice records ...........................................................................................29 2. Technology revolution......................................................................................................................29 a. Computing power ......................................................................................................................29 b. The Internet................................................................................................................................29 3. The response to September 11 .........................................................................................................31 4. Marketplace demands .......................................................................................................................33 5. Risk/loss mitigation ..........................................................................................................................35