Who are you? Who who, who who?
I posted about the Monday night parties before posting about another session I attended on Monday. Whoops! I can't imagine why my mind strayed like that. . .
Anyway, Monday afternoon I went to a session called Information Professional: The New Private Investigator. This session focused on public records information and was presented by Howard E. Trivers, Sr. Ref Librarian at Baker Daniels. He pointed out that all of the online tools are pretty much only good for information from the mid-1990s on. Fortunately while I often need to find old prior art references, I am not called upon to find old public records. Typically, I just need to find a person’s most current contact information so we can serve them or contact them to be a witness. For this, these tools work just fine. My enhanced notes from the session follow:
How do commercial databases work – buy credit header and combine with public records and compile into one report based on common address and info. People let credit card companies know when they move. This is good to know. I don’t think I’d ever really thought about this. If people suddenly stopped applying for credit in this country, this information would quickly dry up.
Problems with databases – run a credit report on yourself to find common mistakes
Have realistic expectations – cannot find everyone, cell phone only and unlisted households are difficult
Today’s companies: Accurint, ChoicePoint, LexisNexis, Westlaw, Loislaw, Intelius, Merlin, Locateplus, etc.
People Finder Databases
Free people finder databases: Infospace (links to foreign phone books), Switchboard, ReferenceUSA, Argali, Google, Superpages
Finding people before the Web: Polk’s City Directory, phone books, directory assistance, call contacts
Accurint: Owned by Lexis, very current, more accurate than competition, higher cost since bought by Lexis, has People at Work (from credit applications – I always wondered how they got the employer information especially because it is not often current. People tell credit card companies when they move so they can keep getting their bills, but they only tell them who their employer is when they fill out the application. I’ve found People at Work is still a great tool, though, because it at least helps you determine if the person you are looking at is in the right general industry.), has some cell phones gotten from insurance applications, etc.
Other Lexis Products: SmartLinx (too expensive – although I will say I used it once to great effect. In my case, I was trying to find a guy who had moved to the US from the UK in 2005. I couldn’t find his address anywhere else, or any public record of his existence really since all of these databases only include US information. But SmartLinx picked up his address in the U.S. It is not the first place to go, but if you are striking out other places, it may be worth a try.), ALLFIND, P-Trak (okay, but competition is fine)
ChoicePoint Products: Lexis is purchasing, AutoTrakXP, KnowX (can use credit card) - Accurate and current, batch file – can upload excel file full of names to see if they are in there and alive or dead (Accurint has batch upload as well)
LoisLaw Public Records: New product for B&D, flat fee, saves money, not purchased by Lexis (yet), has People Finder database, has rating for probability of paying bills (only place to get this info, but it is only okay –rating based partially on how long at address, not only on past history)
Westlaw: Cumbersome and confusing, improved but still weak people finder products, getting info from ReferenceUSA
LocatePlus: find SSN, some cell phone info
Merlin
Intelius
Public Records
Depends on state or jurisdiction, use free sources for locals, spend money for jurisdictions outside your state
Begin research with Accurint or ChoicePoint, use public records to verify current address (i.e. own property)
Searchsytems.net Public Records Directory – portal to public records sites by state
BRB Publication Company – portal links not as extensive as Searchsytems.net, but lists people who will retrieve local docs for you
PublicRecords.com
Craig Ball (www.craigball.com/hotlinks)
Check state tax assessor info for property value info
Some states keep access to records on state web sites and don’t sell access to commercial companies – won’t be in commercial databases, so you have to look on these state web sites
Can sometimes search DMV registration records using SSN for a fee to get address
Current employment info – bankruptcy records - Accurint (sometimes), LinkedIn – I use this all the time - or tail him/her to see where they go
Asset searches – cars and homes is what you can find, not bank or investment accounts
Criminal Records
Individual state web sites – try free sites before spending money
For example, Indiana Department of Correction
Federal Bureau of Prison, state prison department, local county dockets, local city records
Federal Inmate Locator, state offender sites
Westlaw and Lexis Criminal Dockets – catches plea bargains, non-convictions that won’t be on prison sites. Both have state and local criminal dockets, but go local for free sources first
DMV driving records
Other tools and methods
News outlets – go local, search local papers
Google Maps – look at what type of building the address is – house, apartment, suburb, etc. – I’ve done this before. You can use either Google maps of Live maps. The whole photos of your house deal may be a little creepy, but it works great to see if you are finding a residential or commercial location. Trivers suggested using this to see if the house was nice and in a good neighborhood or if it was a dump.
Search engines – notice the plural
Alltheweb - picks up foreign sites – not sure about this comment, don’t they all?
Genealogy – locate relatives of people who have died
Do not pay for commercial databases for death records – http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com – go first, but only has listing of people who have received Social Security benefits
Phone
Get out of the office – if it’s a local address, drive over there yourself and see what you can see
LinkedIn, MySpace, FaceBook
5 Points to Remember
• Use alternative sources
• Check database coverage
• Create value added research
• Control passwords – don’t hand out passwords to public records databases to everyone. They are powerful tools and can be bad in the wrong hands. Plus, job security.
• Go local – look for local/state databases and resources before paying the big bucks