Update: Why Aren't (Police) Criminal Record Checks Enough?

After publishing the "Why Aren't (Police) Criminal Record Checks Enough?" post (link), I received a message from an investigator who gave me their perspective on just how unreliable official police criminal history checks can sometimes be.

I've quoted that message below. 

I just saw the article you posted on criminal record checks. I obviously can’t make a comment on your post because my experience is in regards to jobs I did which are confidential. But I’ve seen police clearances for people whose names don’t exactly match their names on their license. And even one whose name on the criminal record check was just a first name. And unlike your database I don’t believe that the criminal record checks match up to names that are close, because for one particular case I knew that the person had a record and the record check came back clear.

So it seems people can put any names or variations they want or birthdates (because I’ve seen these wrong also) and of course the system spits out there is no record of them in there. But of course they are spitting out reports for people who don’t exist essentially. In one case I pointed it out to the Department of families that one of their staff had provided a criminal record check in a name different from their license and they couldn’t have cared less. Some people don’t even check documents they are given for consistency.  Where does it breakdown because you’re supposed to provide proof of ID when you apply for the criminal record check.