Access Alabama Background Information

The Freedom of Information Act has made it mandatory for law making and law enforcement agencies in Alabama to make public all criminal records that are not confidential in nature or have been ordered sealed by the court. The processes to obtain these records have also been simplified. These moves were prompted by public safety concerns and have facilitated hassle-free and less time-consuming Alabama background checks on suspicious individuals.

Alabama Background Check

A background check involves delving into the credit, family, educational, and criminal history of a person to judge his/her credentials. You need to conduct a background check on a person for a variety of reasons: on your new tenant to check if s/he has ever been convicted of child abuse, on a newly hired employee to check if his/her claims about educational qualifications are valid, on your new chauffeur to find out if he has ever been guilty of committing a drunken driving offense, or on a loan applicant to check for his/her credit worthiness.

Thus an Alabama background check of a person would involve looking up arrest records, driving records, court records if any, and checking the sexual offender registry.

Process of Conducting an Alabama Background Check

The Internet is teeming with websites that list information related to Alabama background checks. Many are free, while some charge a subscription fee to provide information. But it is recommended that you obtain the necessary information from a government source, whose authority and reliability you can vouch for.

You can carry out an Alabama inmate search on http://www.doc.state.al.us/inmatesearch.asp. The site contains information on the inmates presently incarcerated by the state. A search result will contain these bits of information: the location of the inmate, the nature and severity of the offense, details about the prison sentence, and information on parole. The site however, does not contain information on inmates who have been sentenced as Youthful Offenders.

As per Megan’s Law, Alabama requires all sexual offenders residing or working within its territories to register at the local law enforcement office. Information about registered sexual offenders can be searched at Alabama’s Department of Public Safety website, http://community.dps.alabama.gov/. A scour through these records is a must if you have just hired a new nanny, have a tenant moving in within your premises, or you run a day care center.

To check a person’s driving history, visit http://www.dps.state.al.us/DriverLicense/Forms.aspx to fill out the Lifetime History Request Form. The Driver Record Request Form needs to be submitted to obtain a copy of your driving record. The National Driver Register is a central repository listing the names of all drivers with US licenses who have been found guilty of violating traffic rules and whose driving rights have been revoked or suspended. Run a check on a driver who you think is operating on a suspended license on http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/menuitem.f27748441b1ad09d07b2e610cba046a0/. These driving records contain the date and nature of the offense, whether there have been repeat offenses, the status of the driving license, and whether convicted driver has gone through the court-ordered correction program(s).

An Alabama background check should also involve raking up court records, if you know of instances of court cases. Alalinc, the Legal Information Network belonging to the State Law Library, http://www.alalinc.net/, lists and updates appellate court opinions daily. Subscribe to the site for USD 200 annually and access  their services.