Over the past five years, technology has changed the way things work. For instance, access to public records was done entirely manually. It involved physically sending a person out to sift through piles of paperwork in order to find the right document. Today, however, a large percentage of all public information is available and accessible online. In fact, aware of the importance of access to criminal records, many government agencies have made previously hard-to-obtain documents accessible for on the Internet. Some cost a small fee, but others can be obtained for free.

There are many vendors who sell access to criminal records via the internet. But because of laws governing the distribution of this information, not all of these records are available to the public. A majority of these vendors have agreed to sell information to people you are authorized to obtain it by virtue of their job (research firms, law firms, criminal justice agencies, law authorities, etc.)

One of the top reasons that people perform criminal background checks is to check out prospective employees. This is what most clients of these research firms are looking for. Employers have become more diligent about performing these checks mostly due to negligent hiring lawsuits.

If you are an employer, you have a responsibility to keep your employees' work environment safe. If you've hired an employee that has a history of criminal behavior, and you failed to ascertain this by doing a background check, you can be held liable for any crime they might commit.

Too many horrible incidents could have been prevented if only the employer had accessed the public criminal records of a prospective hire. Don't let the unthinkable happen at your place of business -- do criminal background checks on all your employees.