The National Crime Information Center: A Review and Evaluation (Aug. 3, 2005)

A report completed for the National Association of Background Screeners has identified a host of inaccuracies in FBI criminal records including: failure of states to report dispositions (outcomes) of arrests following fingerprinting; lack of timeliness in reporting dispositions; ineffective linking of individuals and cases; false positives, attributing criminal records to individuals that don't have one; and false negatives, where people with criminal convictions are not identified as such. Of the 174 million arrests on file, only 45% had final dispositions (proof of the outcome in an arrest), which are necessary in order for screeners to make hiring and other decisions.