3 Ways to Play Private Eye

Want to play Sam Spade and check out your daughter's new boyfriend or the woman you're thinking of hiring as an assistant?

There's a wealth of information in public records if you know how to access them. Public records contain everything from property tax records to criminal history. Courts and other governmental agencies post public records online, but the data is usually contained on user-unfriendly websites.

3 Ways To Play Private Eye

If you suspect the applicant for the nanny position might have a criminal history, Criminal Searches is your tool. All you need is a name and state, but you can add other details to refine the search. Their records contain crime descriptions, past addresses and known aliases.

If you want to access the public records on people and businesses, with a name and state, Dirt Search can help. Just remember, there's a lot of public record sites in any state so you'll have to dig through the data to find what you want. The states don't have to conform to any guidelines in what they release, so you'll find different kinds of data from state to state.


You can search using Google, but, as you well know, you get thousands of hits. CVgadget is an app that categorizes the results.

Takeaway Truth

The Internet makes it possible to be your own reference librarian.