Philadelphia detective Lily Rush solves mysterious police cases that have gone cold with no leads for years on television’s “Cold Case.” With access to the full and complete records in the database for the Philadelphia Department of Transportation, she has information at her fingertips that helps her solve crimes and catch criminals.

Some people wish that they had a detective like Lilly Rush on their side, turning the entire state of Pennsylvania on its head until she cracks the case. But, unfortunately, some people are on their own when it comes to gathering sensitive, personal information; they may not even be able to get help from the police.

Let’s say the only piece of information you have is a license plate number, and you don’t have any other leads to follow. You can’t just waltz into the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and expect to be shown all the information they have about a particular license plate number. They do have the information you need, but they are not legally allowed to release sensitive information to private individuals, even if they need it.

The same can be said of any local Pennsylvania police department. Even if you know someone in the department, you shouldn’t ask them to risk their job so that you can access this information. There just has to be a better way.

Luckily, the answer is ‘yes.’ You can use a private database to do many kinds of research about someone or a car or truck. Many private companies now make it their business to maintain databases of personal records. With a license plate number or VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) you can do a reverse search which may help you get a wide variety of information.

The information in the private databases is legally obtained. The private investigation companies are free to distribute this information as they see fit. With the help of private personal record databases, everyday people can have access to information with no legal risk or liability.

It is normal for these private database companies to charge a small fee to people who want to search their databases, so you should be prepared to pay a small amount for the information that they give you. But, most people are glad to finally have a way to get the information that they need. Access to this information can be crucial to regular people, who may need it for a variety of reasons. Until these private databases existed, they had no way of obtaining it. Different databases are privately maintained, so it is expected that they do not all contain the same information. One database might have information that another does not. Just like a detective, you must be persistent in your search, and consider using more than one database, so you will have a variety of leads to follow. If you are persistent, you will eventually get the information you need.

To help you locate the owner of a Pennsylvania vehicle, Public Records expert Dylan Finkerton has written a simple guide to finding the owner of an Pennsylvania license plate. Conducting a reverse license plate search in Pennsylvania will get you more information about the car and driver.