Law Enforcement Screening

FBI Most Wanted Screening API

The FBI maintains a public database of wanted persons — fugitives, terrorists, cybercriminals, and other individuals for whom the bureau has active warrants or significant interest. For enhanced due diligence workflows, background screening tools, and identity verification pipelines, checking against the FBI's wanted list is a reasonable additional layer — particularly when the use case involves high-risk customers, cash-intensive businesses, or counterparties in sensitive industries.

What the raw source looks like

The FBI publishes wanted persons data through an official public API at api.fbi.gov/wanted/v1/list. It's paginated JSON, requires handling rate limits, and covers approximately 1,140 active entries. The data is real — it's the same source powering the FBI's public wanted persons website.

What the API does

Submit a name and receive fuzzy-matched results from the FBI's current wanted persons database.

POST /screen/fbi { "name": "John Doe", "threshold": 85 }

Results include the subject's listed charges, physical description fields, and the case details available in the public record. Data is fetched from the FBI's official API every 6 hours, with an OpenSanctions fallback for reliability during source outages.

Also available: combined watchlist

Also available

The US Law Enforcement Watchlist Screener combines FBI Most Wanted with DEA fugitives in a single endpoint — approximately 1,300 combined entries — for broader law enforcement coverage in one call.

Who uses this

  • Background screening platforms adding law enforcement data to their checks
  • KYC/KYB workflows doing enhanced due diligence on high-risk customer segments
  • Compliance teams at financial institutions, gaming platforms, or marketplaces
  • Developers building identity verification or fraud prevention tools

Pricing

Free tier: 100 requests/month. Pro: $15/month for 5,000 requests.

Screen against FBI Most Wanted

~1,140 entries. Live data every 6 hours. Free tier included.

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