I was talking to someone recently about the importance of doing regular background checks on yourself to make sure that you don't have any arrest warrants and that your records are correct. I was shocked and amazed by what this person told me.

I know how embarrassing it can be when the police come and arrest you without warning. Not to mention the stress, upset, loss of work and the financial implications that are involved. It hasn't happened to me but I know someone who has experienced it. One way to try and avoid this situation is to do regular background checks so that you can spot any warrants early enough to get a lawyer to help you to give yourself up and straighten things out.

Then I was told something that took me by surprise. Apparently the person I was talking to had warrants in another state and so did his wife. It turned out that they had warrants in several states dating back for years. I don't know why this person told me this - I would rather keep that sort of thing to myself but he obviously felt confident enough not to worry about it. I suppose if I reported his whereabouts to the police he would simply move out of state again.

He explained to me that police departments aren't keen to chase people once they move out of the state that they committed the offence in. Apparently it's too expensive to cooperate with other police departments and I guess "out of state - out of mind".

It's very common for criminals to commit offences in one state then move to another when they get caught. Some even live in one state and commute to other states to commit crimes. The police almost never come after them unless they can catch them red handed in the act. This means that there might be far more criminals in your neighborhood than you imagined there could be.

Think about this for a moment. Any of your friends, neighbors, people you work with or hire to do work for you. Any of them might be criminals and you would never suspect it. That's a scary thought.

After this conversation I was worried and you should be too. I wanted to find out who and where the criminals were so that I could take steps to protect myself. You can find a lot of background information about someone by going online and using a public records web site. You can find out if someone has arrest warrants or a criminal record. You can also find out if they are married - useful if you are dating them - or bankrupt and many other things that you can use to make sure someone is who they say they are and that they aren't hiding something from you.

Who knows what you'll find when you start to check out your friends and neighbors. You should check out the people who live near you and anyone you come into contact with. Make a point of doing arrest warrant searches on anyone that you might hire to do any work for you and anyone you might date. You could save yourself a lot of problems and if they come up clean then you will have peace of mind.