Verifiable credentials
- Public records professional since 1999.
- Founding member, National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) — the trade body that established U.S. background-screening standards.
- Owner & editor of SearchSystems.net since 2020. SearchSystems.net itself launched in 1996, predating my ownership.
- BBB A+ rating, Santa Barbara, CA.
Background
My professional involvement with public-records research began in 1999, when I founded one of the first online private-investigation and public-records research services — at a time when most of that work still meant phone calls to courthouses and waiting weeks for paper. Around the same period I founded a paid, FCRA-aware background-check service, and joined the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) as one of its founding members. NAPBS set the screening standards still used by professional screeners today.
In 2020, I acquired SearchSystems.net, the long-running free public-records directory online since 1996. I do not claim authorship of the work done on the directory before my ownership — but everything published on SearchSystems.net since 2020, and the current editorial direction of the site, is mine.
I run a small group of public-records sites in adjacent areas — a paid background-check service (Background Check), a hub-style public-records guide (Public Record Center), and a transparency-grading project (Open Public Records). I disclose this here for transparency. Each site exists for a different purpose and SearchSystems.net is operated as a free, directly-linked directory with no commercial relationship to those other sites.
Editorial role on SearchSystems.net
I personally set the editorial direction of the site, approve the methodology used to vet record-source links, and review every framework or content update that affects record-accuracy guidance — especially anything touching criminal records, court records, sealing, or background-check law. Day-to-day editorial work (link verification, .gov source confirmation, dated update logs) is performed by the SearchSystems editorial team under my direction.
Methodology & principles
- Link only to official government sources (.gov, .us, state courts, state agencies) and recognized federal repositories (PACER, FBI Identity History Summary, BOP inmate locator, NSOPW).
- No data brokers, no paid lookup sites, no resold data.
- Every cited statute, fee, or program update on a page is tied to a dated .gov source.
- Editorial review every 12 months at minimum; criminal/court/sealing pages re-reviewed when a statutory change is published.
Topics I personally write and review on
- U.S. criminal records access, state by state
- FCRA-governed vs. personal-use background checks
- State sealing, expungement, and record-restriction procedures
- Court records: PACER, statewide portals, county clerks
- ICE detainers and federal immigration records
- Private investigation and public-records research methodology
Contact
For corrections, source updates, or editorial questions, write to the editorial desk.