We’ve all received email pitches with offers of:

Search online databases filled with the latest public records information on your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, boss, co-worker and thousands more. Get the same professional level access that law enforcement efforts demand to reverse lookup and trace anyone anywhere! Also is excellent for genealogy searching, etc.

So what’s the deal? Of the hundreds of public records databases now available in some form to the average Joe, which one’s actually deliver top level free people finder search results? Which one provides the best access to free public records? All good questions!

My direct experience with public records databases outside of work is pretty limited. I work as an assistant in the Prosecuting Attorney’s office of my county, and we have access to a couple of very interesting people search and public records programs called Autotrak & Lexis-Nexis. We have a flat-fee contract so that we can search as much as needed without additional cost. It’s my understanding that access to these databases is strictly controlled to government agencies and law enforcement. For criminal records, we use the internal connection to the FBI’s NCIC system, which lists criminal records in all counties and all 50 states , uncluding U.S. possesions. It also lists all aliases, former names, and a complete address history, which is great to use for a free people finder search when we need to find witnesses, etc. The problem is that access from our office is pass-coded and logged, so it kind of takes the fun out of that for private searches.

Just for grins, I’ll be testing out some of the free public record search sales pitches I’ve been receiving to see just how well they match up with databases I use at work and post some feedback on the results.