Conduct a Georgia Background Check

A Georgia background check is an absolute must if you have to deal with an unknown, little known or a suspicious individual before you give him access to your property, belongings, or strike up relations with your family members. This is the most surefire way to check the credentials of the person or verify his claims. A GA background check may be needed from time to time by both the ordinary resident or a law enforcement officer.

The state of Georgia abides by the federal Freedom of Information Act. According to the guidelines of this law, a state has to make public all criminals records associated with an individual. The law has been formulated as a public safety measure and is considered relevant for all records that have not been declared sealed by the court, are not deemed private or confidential, or have not been expunged from the public domain.

The guidelines of the law bind all arrest and conviction records, the personal and private information associated with sexual offenders and dangerous predators, driving records that also include records of drunken driving offenses and other instances of traffic law breaches, financial records, and court cases.

A Georgia background check involves searching through one or more of the above kinds of records, depending upon the information that you would want to verify about an individual.

Reasons for a Georgia Background Check

However insightful you may be, you cannot look past a person’s carefully cultivated façade and read his/her malicious intentions. So, you should carry out a thorough Georgia background check on your new tenant, the new babysitter, the chauffeur you have hired, or the little known man who claims to be your son’s friend.

Look up the Georgia sex offender registry and find out if the name of your new neighbor is found there. These Georgia background checks are the best ways to find out about the criminal past of dubious individuals. In fact, many Georgia companies run background checks on individuals before recruiting them.

In recent years, Georgia background check information has been computerized, hosted on the Internet, and thus been made easily accessible to the public. The official procedures for obtaining hard copies of these records have also been relaxed considerably.

However, while you are conducting a Georgia background check, remember that the information has been included in the public domain only as a public safety measure. Not all courts consider this information as permissible evidence nor can you use such information to level charges against a person. You should also not use this information to intimidate, harass, or discriminateagainst someone whom you have learned is a past criminal.

Process of Accessing Georgia Background Check Information

There are many commercial websites that contain information to help you carry out Georgia background checks. Of these, some allow you to view the records for no charge at all, while others require you to register for a certain amount of money to be able to view and obtain copies of the records. However, it is always a prudent measure to obtain information from a government body when you are carrying out a GA background check. You cannot trust any other source of information blindfolded.

If you have drivers working in your transportation or car rental company, you must verify the status of their driver's licenses before you allow them to operate your vehicles on the road. You will know from a search of driver license records whether the person has ever been charged of committing a drunken driving offense or has violated any traffic, and if so, how serious the charge was.

Such information will warn you about any particular driver and also help you decide whether or not to hire any driver’s services. You can request a search of a person’s driving records at the Motor Vehicle Division of Georgia’s Department of Revenue at 1200 Tradeport Boulevard, Hapeville, GA 30354.

The National Drivers Register (NDR) office maintains information on those drivers with U.S. licenses whose driving privileges have been either been revoked or suspended. You can conduct Georgia background checks about the present status of a person’s driving license from NDR accounts. You may call their office at 1-888-851-0436 or visit in person USDOT/NHTSA West Building, NVS-422 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington DC 20590 to submit your request.

You can also complete the Current or Prospective Employee Form from the motor vehicle department and submit it to Georgia’s Motor Vehicle Division to request an NDR file check on a prospective or present employee who is licensed in Georgia. This form may be filled out by either the employer or the prospective or present employee. The driver needs to authorize the request by signing on the form. You will also have to attach evidence of the driver’s identity with the form. Notarize the record request form if you are mailing it.

Upon your request, you will receive information that was provided to the NDR within the last three years. If the individual is found on an NDR file or you receive information on possible matches, you will have to verify his/her identity. You will be given the name, address, and phone number of the licensing officer from whom you will have to obtain a copy of the person’s driver record. 

You can conduct Georgia background checks on offenders at Georgia’s Department of Corrections office at 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE Twin Towers- East, Room 854, Atlanta, Georgia 30334. You may also call the office at (404) 656-9772 or submit your search request via e-mail to info@dcor.state.ga.us.

The information about sexual offenders residing within Georgia’s territories is found at the official we site of the National Sex Offender Registry, http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Conditions.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1. This is a central database of information on sexual offenders and dangerous predators supervised, maintained, and updated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The information listed here is provided by the various local law enforcement authorities.