Criminal Background Checks
Built for Your Success
You're building a strong, authentic culture at your organization. That's why you're careful about the people you hire. It’s also the reason why it’s necessary to review every applicant closely. Sterling's criminal background check, identity verification, and background screening solutions - powered by our proprietary automation technology - will give you confidence to take the next step and bring those top candidates onto your team while ensuring the safety of your organization.

Achieve More with Sterling
- Gain direct access to more U.S. criminal records
- Receive higher quality results through automated auditing and quality control
- Effectively manage risk with our technology-enabled compliance tools
- Obtain faster criminal background check results using end-to-end automation technology so you can start new hires working sooner
Why Sterling?
- Our CourtDirect technology provides direct online digital access to ~90% of our U.S. criminal search records.
- Our SmartData technology enables us to further automate across the end-to-end background criminal check process – from matching candidate data to determining reportability and applying your order rules.
90% turnaround time in the first day. 1 | |
90% criminal searches completed with automation. 1 | 70% turnaround time in the first hour. 1 |
95
%25
%98
%Delivering Thorough Results
Proven Industry Expertise
Robust End-to-End Employee Criminal Background Check Solutions
Extensive Suite
of Services
So, what is a background check? More specifically, how are our criminal background check services different? Sterling’s criminal background check services are designed for today’s modern global workforce. Our robust suite of criminal background screening services can be tailored to fit your specific business needs and requirements.
County Court Record Searches are available in 3,340+ counties in the United States and identify potential criminal history, such as felony convictions, misdemeanor convictions, and pending cases in the jurisdictions provided by the candidate or identified based on Social Security Trace or other locator criminal background checks (e.g. where they have lived, worked, or attended school) within the past seven years at minimum.
Sterling searches through the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), which includes registered sex offenders in 49 States, US territories, the District of Columbia, and participating Indigenous tribes. Please note that reporting in Nevada is not permitted.
FACIS, a search with Verisys®, pulls primary source data from federal and state sources for exclusions, sanctions, debarments, and disciplinary actions against health care professionals and businesses for published license types and publishing jurisdictions. FACIS sources include federal agencies, such as the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG) List of Excluded Individuals/Entities, the System for Award Management (SAM), and Excluded Parties List System (EPLS).
A State Search is a search of a state’s repository or state police records for criminal information and can provide an alternative source for criminal record information in a state.
The Federal Court Search is for crimes that are prosecuted in federal district courts and include convictions and pending cases for charges such as international/inter-state drug trafficking, kidnapping, and other federal-level crimes. Sterling can obtain federal records from all district courts throughout the US and related territories.
The Global Criminal Search is for records in countries and/or territories based on the candidate’s self-disclosed address history, excluding US and Canadian sources, and may include various levels of courts, police records, or other sources of information. Records are reported in accordance with regional and local laws and regulations, and other restrictions that may be imposed by the source. Major coverage areas include Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific (APAC).
The Extended Global Sanctions Search examines millions of records worldwide sourced from foreign governments, courts, regulatory enforcement, law enforcement agencies, and other public and proprietary data sources around the globe. Data sources are subject to availability and applicable reporting restrictions. This search reviews restriction, sanction, and exclusion records maintained by US and international legal and regulatory enforcement organizations and public sources, and includes sources containing information from 1,700+ watchlists and sanctions with 4+ million records, as well as Politically Exposed Persons (PEP).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons is commonly referred to as the terrorist watch list. OFAC administers and enforces economic sanctions programs primarily against countries and groups of individuals, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers. The sanctions can be comprehensive or selective, using the blocking of assets and trade restrictions to accomplish foreign policy and national security goals. As a service, the results are subject to availability and applicable reporting limitations.
Criminal activity monitoring proactively monitors 2,000+ jails for new booking and incarceration events for the enrolled employee population. Employers receive alert notifications so they can conveniently log into the Workforce Monitoring application to view additional criminal activity details.
How We Are Different
Get Started with
Criminal Background Checks
Whether you are looking for background checks for employers or more accurate criminal background checks, here’s how you can make safer, faster, more accurate hiring decisions utilizing our robust solutions. Click the option that best describes you.
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