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What to Look For:
-In Brief-
-In Brief-
However, in order to get the right information, you’ve got to do the right search!
Unfortunately, many Iowa criminal court records searches start out with the best of intentions — and then wind up being outdated, inaccurate, and way more expensive than you ever dreamed possible.
Luckily, yours won’t turn out this way as long as you follow these 5 tips:
Iowa Criminal Court Records
- Hire a licensed private investigator to do the work
It may seem so much easier to simply Google the term “Iowa criminal records search” and click on the very first link you see, but that’s how most of these searches turn into a complete disaster! Most of the websites you see aren’t run by licensed private investigators. In fact, they’re not run by anyone with any kind of investigative background!
A licensed private investigator can access information that most people can’t — stuff that’s normally just reserved for law enforcement. Plus, they’ll have access to the most recent details, meaning that you’ll never have to worry if your search missed something important.
- Understand the difference between hand-searches and automated searches
Most of the websites you see advertising Iowa criminal searches are nothing more than data aggregators. Because they’re not licensed, they buy up whatever public records they can find — usually stuff that’s a few years old. Then, they upload the records onto their server so that the information can come flowing out after a mouse click or two.
It sounds great to say that you’ll get instant search results, but in reality, all you’re getting is old information. Plus, these websites don’t rely on any human input to double-check everything. That means you could wind up with information on the wrong person!
On the other hand, a licensed private investigator will do all of his searching by hand. He’ll go through everything so that he can eliminate false positives and other errors that can turn your informed decision into an uninformed one.
Iowa Criminal Search
- Find out where your information is coming from
Searching records by hand is only helpful if your investigator is searching in the right places! Don’t be afraid to ask your investigator exactly where he’ll be looking. The most thorough private investigator will conduct your Iowa criminal search by studying:
– Records from Iowa’s Administrative Office of Courts, which contain information about everyone who’s ever been under the jurisdiction of the state’s court system. The details listed here include what the person was charged with and the court disposition.
– Records from the Iowa Department of Corrections, including details about felons who have served time in a state correctional institution and felons who are/have been under the jurisdiction of the state probation system.
– Details from the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, including details about whether the crime was violent or was committed against someone under the age of 18. These records also contain current probation and work release information, along with details about deferred sentences and judgments. In many cases, this Registry also lists Iowa citizens who have been convicted of sex crimes in other states and federal crimes.
– Records pertaining to certain traffic offenses
- Don’t believe sales pitches that are too good to be true
In many cases, websites that perform Iowa criminal records searches make their service sound dirt cheap — or even free! But if you take a look through their long list of fine print, you’ll usually see that those free searches aren’t as free as they make them sound. Sure, you can physically type someone’s name and birth date into the search box for free, but when it comes to actually seeing the results, you’ll have to pay up. Oftentimes, you’ll be forced into an expensive subscription service in order to see your results.
Luckily, a good private investigator won’t have pages and pages of tricky fine print. Instead, you’ll simply pay a one-time upfront fee, and your investigator will never ask you to spend any more money.
- Don’t wait longer than you have to
We’ve already talked about why those instant search results aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to wait days or weeks on end to see the results of your Iowa criminal records search! Part of a good investigator’s expertise is knowing how to conduct thorough searches as quickly as possible. As a result, you should have your results very quickly. (In fact, here at Docusearch, we can get your results to you within one business day.)
See the difference firsthand by turning your Iowa criminal records search over to the team of licensed private investigators at Docusearch!