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The Public Records service automates criminal record evaluation for background screening. Organizations submit screening data and candidate information, and receive FCRA-compliant reportability decisions — REPORTABLE, NOT_REPORTABLE, or MANUAL_REVIEW — with full compliance rule citations, identity match scores, and automated queue routing. Decisions are returned synchronously. No polling or callbacks required.

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How It Works

The service processes each request through three stages:
  1. XML Transformation — Raw screening XML is parsed into structured criminal record data.
  2. Identity Matching — The candidate is compared against each record subject using name, date of birth, SSN, and address, producing a weighted match score.
  3. Compliance Evaluation — FCRA and 50-state rules are applied at the charge level. Each charge receives a reportability decision and is routed to the appropriate queue (Automation, Auditor, or Insufficient Data).
All three stages run behind a single /evaluate endpoint.

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Common Use Cases

  • Automated background screening — Evaluate criminal records against federal and state compliance rules without manual lookups.
  • Employment verification workflows — Determine whether charges are reportable before including them in a background report.
  • Queue-based researcher routing — Automatically route charges that require human review to auditors, while clearing compliant records end-to-end.
  • Resubmission after correction — Re-evaluate a previously processed record with corrected data using the JSON resubmission path.

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How to Integrate

1

Set Up Your Account

Create your organization profile and obtain API credentials. See Account Setup.
2

Authenticate

Exchange your API key for a JWT token. See Authentication.
3

Evaluate Records

Submit a criminal record for compliance evaluation. See Quickstart for a complete walkthrough.
4

Handle Errors

Implement retry logic and failure handling. See Error Handling.

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