Been issued a speeding ticket? Failed to stop at
a stop sign? What about your family members?
And friends? If you are like most of us, the
answer to at least one of those questions is
“yes”—the vast majority of us have slipped up
at least once or twice.
An innovative new website— Instant Checkmate
is now revealing the full “scoop” on millions of
Americans.
Instant Checkmate aggregates hundreds of
millions of publicly available criminal, traffic,
and arrest records and posts them online so
they can easily be searched by anyone. Members
of the site can literally begin searching within
seconds, and are able to check as many records
as they like (think: friends, family, neighbors,
etc. etc.).
Previously, if you wanted to research someone’s
arrest records, you might have had to actually
go in to a county court office—in the
appropriate county—and formally request
information on an individual. This process may
have taken days or weeks, or the information
might not have been available at all. With
websites like Instant Checkmate, however, a
background check takes just a few clicks of the
mouse, and no more than a minute or two.
While preparing this article I decided to run a
quick search on myself to give the service a
real-world test. To my dismay, the search
revealed several items I’d long forgotten—one of
them being for the possession of a fake ID I was
(embarrassingly) issued back in college when I
was just 18 years old.
"possession of a fake ID I was
(embarrassingly) issued back
in college when I was just 18
years old"
After searching myself and finding those
records, my curiosity was piqued, and I began
researching family members—apparently my
aunt Susanne isn’t a very good driver, judging
by the numerous traffic citations that showed
on her record.
One of the most interesting aspects of Instant
Checkmate is that it shows not only criminal
records, but also more general background
information like marriage records, divorce
records, various types of licenses (medical,
firearm, aviation, etc.), previous addresses,
phone numbers, birthdates, estimated income
levels and even satellite imagery of known
addresses—it’s really pretty scary just how
much information is in these reports.
In addition to giving information on the specific
person you search for, the report also includes
a scrolling list of “local sex offenders” for
whatever region you’ve searched—along with a
map plotting out the locations of those
offenders. I started perusing the ones that
showed up in my report, and I was absolutely
blown away when I stumbled upon my junior
high school wrestling coach’s mug shot.
I was absolutely blown away
when I stumbled upon my
junior high school wrestling
coach’s mug shot.
His crime was listed as "Out of state offense,""
so I wasn’t able to get the specifics (you usually
can—this was an unusual case), but he was
definitely a registered sex offender. Scary stuff.
I would definitely recommend this tool to friends
and family. Anyone can start running
background checks on Instant Checkmate
within a few seconds—just click this link to get
started.
If you would like to search someone you know,
click here .
