Gaping Holes found in the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Statewide Criminal Database
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The Texas Department of Public Safety is one of the largest state agencies headquartered in Austin, Texas. The agency is not only responsible for maintaining public safety in the state of Texas but also responsible for maintaining a statewide criminal convictions database of nearly 25 million records that is available to the public for a fee. This database is often relied upon by businesses, property management companies, landlords, private investigators, pre-employment screening companies, etc. for conducting vital criminal background checks. Even though this database remains popular, it was named as one of the most successful e-commerce sites for the State of Texas as reported in PC Magazine and Wired, there are some serious holes in the database and it should not be trusted as a single source for credible information when conducting background checks and background investigations. In fact, this is a cautionary tale for every investigator who relies upon unified state databases for much of their work product.
In October of this year, Imperative Research Group of Fort Worth, Texas did a study on the state’s criminal database and their analysis showed that more than 1/3 of the database was incomplete and missing many records of criminal convictions and crimes. The group studied 562 cases and reported that the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS) database was missing 36% of the criminal records in the study. You can read detailed results of their study at www.imperativeinfo.com.
TDPS has publically admitted over the years that there has been a problem with its statewide criminal convictions database, so while this may not be shocking news to many of us, it is a sobering reminder that statewide criminal records databases should NEVER be used as the only source of information for background investigations or criminal background checks and that all information derived from these sources should be verified against local county criminal and city law enforcement records. Most of these databases have unpredictable updating schedules, poor quality control, backlogging of records and a lack of timeliness in receiving arrest / disposition data; not to mention that little thing called input error.
Additionally, there are a tremendous number of resources that provide online criminal record searches popping up everyday on the Internet, but steer clear of those cheap online searches; they’re also very often inaccurate since they rely on databases, such as the TX DPS database, as their sole source of information; to make matters worse, they are rarely maintained, culled or “batch updated.”
The most comprehensive, professional background check or background investigation should be conducted by a professional private investigator or professional courthouse records researcher who will make certain to provide their client relevant, extensive and reliable information obtained directly from the source.
When looking for good, reliable pre-employment screening it is so important to make sure that agency itself is reliable. Databases don’t provide the best information and most are not FCRA compliant.
When looking for good, reliable pre-employment screening it is so important to make sure that agency itself is reliable. Databases don’t provide the best information and most are not FCRA compliant.