Practically everyone wants to find a long lost friend, a former neighbor, some old classmates, and maybe a deadbeat dad. Not only that, but professional investigators and law enforcement agencies often need to track someone down for a variety of reasons.
If you had knowledge of and access to the wide variety of public records that professional investigators know about, you could likely find someone you are looking for. But, there are a number of obstacles in your way.
First, you probably don’t know about the wide variety of information sources. While everyone knows about local phone directories, fewer people know that voter records are public ally available. Each state also has other databases that can be accessed in appropriate ways. For example, most states have public databases listing sex offenders residing in the state.
Second, even if you knew about some public records, you may not have easy access to them. Many public records are available for local access on computers connected to a local area network, not to the Internet. Often only more recent records are stored electronically. And, the vast majority of public records have not been digitized and still exist only in paper (or microform) format. To access these records you need to either visit the facility where the documents are stored or request a paper copy be mailed to you.
