Statewide Criminal Records Check are now available in all 50 states and most U.S. Territories but some states require a signed release from the applicant. More importantly state records are not updated as often as county level records and may not include all counties within a given state. You must also take into consideration that an applicant may have resided in several different states or may have committed a crime while traveling outside of their home state. So a statewide search may have a broader coverage area than a county level but it is not updated as regularly and does not provide information on crimes committed in other parts of the country.