You might want to reconsider conducting a "Single County" / "Current County Only" background check.

We analyzed a full year of screening data for a Kentucky manufacturer. Rural area, local workforce, most hires live within 40 miles of the plant. If any employer could get away with a current-county-only search, it's this one.

What we found in their 2026 applicants:

→ 157 had at least one criminal record.
→ 65% of those records were filed in a county OTHER than where the applicant lives now.
→ 76 applicants had records ONLY in outside counties.

That last number is the problem. A single-county search on those 76 people comes back clear. No flags, nothing to review. The employer signs off on a report that never looked where the record actually was.

Nearly half of the applicants with a criminal history would have passed a current-county-only check. That's 13% of everyone this employer screened last year.

And the records weren't far away, mostly the next county over, an hour's drive.

This client isn't unusual. Across our entire 2026 book, 1 in 4 applicants with a record would pass a single-county check.

A cheaper search isn't cheaper when it returns a clean report that isn't true. It just moves the cost from the invoice to the hire.