Do you want to see the complete criminal history of someone that you know or would like to employ but you are frustrated with the fact that you cannot see their FBI criminal check? Many people assume that FBI records are a matter of public record, much like county and state records are, but this is just not the case. In fact, only a very limited number of people can actually run an FBI criminal check.

The FBI keeps their records confidential. There is only one place that you can conduct an FBI criminal check and this is through a database known as NCIC. The National Crime Information Center is where all federal records are stored and the average person cannot tap into this resource. In fact, the NCIC is only accessible to law enforcement personnel who are deemed to have a reason to access records that have been created by the FBI.

While this can prove frustrating, you may not need to do an FBI criminal check to see what someone has been up to in their criminal life. Most of the time when the FBI has had communication with someone and has charged them with a crime, the state will also press charges. The result is that anything that is on the FBI criminal record will be on the state record, or you can at least get an idea of what they may have been charged with on a state level. While you may never be able to see a criminal record on the federal level, the state record of someone with a federal record usually is not clean.

If you are involved in law enforcement you will likely be able to access the federal record of someone. Of course, you cannot do this for personal reasons, but if you have a professional reason to look up records through the NCIC you may be able to do just that. You have to have an identification number to use the NCIC, and this is only given to those who have a legitimate use for FBI records.