Businesses, schools, and day cares all use the ICHAT system, an Internet Criminal History Access Tool that is a Web site run by the Michigan State Police.

ICHAT Find out more about Michigan's ICHAT System

It's supposed to have up-to-date information about convicted criminals, but the Local 4 Defenders discovered a murderer, a robber, sexual offenders, and many other criminals convicted of crimes were listed in the database with clean records.

But do you really know who is taking care of your children, who is teaching your son or daughter, or who is the new employee in your office?

You trust when day cares, schools and businesses hire employees, that they are screened and scrutinized.

Most businesses do it by conducting background checks, but the Defenders have discovered that in Michigan those checks are run with outdated equipment, meaning criminals could be hired to watch your children, teach your kids, and work along side you and no one would ever know.

To understand the problem you must first understand the computer system that so many Michigan employers depend on.

The process for ICHAT is simple: Pay $10 then enter a potential employees name, date of birth, and race. In minutes you will receive that person's criminal history.

That is the way the system is supposed to work.

"We developed the tool for the general public to access criminal history information to make decisions based on whether they should hire people," said Tom Miller of the Michigan State Police.

It's a great concept, but the Local 4 Defenders discovered some major loopholes allowing criminals to be hired by Michigan companies and according to state records they appear to have a perfectly clean record.

To test the system, the Defenders randomly selected 80 names of Michigan criminals we knew were convicted of crimes: everything from drinking and driving, sexual assaults to murder.

Then the Defenders entered their names into the ICHAT system to see if the state had a record of their crimes. Remember this is the system employers depend on to make hiring decisions.

What the Defenders found was shocking: eight of the 80 names came back with a clean record. Ten percent of the time convicted criminals' crimes were missing. The system failed.

Which criminals did the state miss? Donald Duvall of Monroe was recently convicted of first-degree murder.

Lynda Baker was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. No record could be found.

The same goes for Thomas Dybalski, who was convicted of using computers to commit sex crimes, but when we entered his name into the system there was no record of that crime.

Kisha Richardson was convicted of unarmed robbery for her involvement in a campus robbery spree at the University of Michigan, but when we typed her name into the ICHAT system, she had no record.

Anthony Olson, Todd Kummel, Richard Subvert, and Scott Francis, were convicted of different degrees of criminal sexual conduct, but according to ICHAT their records were clean.

All eight people, all convicted criminals, all appear to have clean records according to ICHAT. It makes you wonder how many employers have hired criminals and had no idea.

Tom Parker owns American Investigators, a private detective company in Bloomfield Hills, which conducts hundreds of background checks on people.

"We do background checks for various reasons, criminal, financial ability, we take it to different levels," said Parker.

Parker said he uses the ICHAT system, but doesn't fully depend on it.

"Because of these loopholes, we don't rely on it 100 percent," said Parker.

DEFENDERS: "About 8 out of 80 were not in ICHAT, and that's obviously very alarming."

PARKER: "It is and there's a number of different reasons for that."

The Defenders went straight to Lansing to question ICHAT officials from the Michigan State Police.

Tom Miller, with the Michigan State Police. said the main problem is the state is not fully automated when taking and submitting fingerprints.

This is how Michigan State Police would like the system to run: Once a person is arrested and their fingerprints are taken, those fingerprints would be sent electronically to Lansing. Once the person is convicted, their record would automatically and immediately be a part of ICHAT. That way employers would know the criminal history of future employees and there would be no room for mistakes. The problem is that many police departments are still taking fingerprints manually and sending those prints in the mail.

That's why some of the convicted criminals are slipping through the cracks and putting the public's safety in jeopardy, Local 4 Defenders reported.

The Defenders discovered only half of the state's police departments submit fingerprints electronically, and only 12 of the 83 prosecutors offices file fingerprints electronically and that is causing an unmanageable backlog.

The bottom line, said Miller, is that mistakes will be made, records will be missed, and some employers will have no idea who they really are hiring until the state is fully automated.

Since our investigation, the state is taking action. The Defenders were told a new project manager is being hired and the state did hire 15 temporary employees to try to catch up with the backlog, but the real answer is automation.

The state told the Local 4 Defenders that company's options are to contact local police departments or hire a private detective.

Basically the state says you can use the ICHAT system, but you cannot fully depend on it.