There are a number of state agencies that maintain record databases for law enforcement purposes. This category includes, criminal records, incarceration records, motor vehicle records, and consumer licensing records.
They are useful resources in this context. Some records make their way into the public view because they become part of news stories, are published in phone books or other ways. These are technically not public records, as the public has no rights to this information, but they become public anyway.
Arrest records have been openly available for decades from most local police stations in the form of the "booking log." They are usually not available from public record vendors, but some communities and community newspapers have begun to post arrest records. Many states and cities have posted inmate records and lists of who is in the local jails. Prisoner locator services are available free from twenty-five states' corrections or prisons departments.
Every state has a central repository of major misdemeanor, felony arrest records and convictions. States submit criminal record activity to the National Crime Information Center, which is not open to the public.
Not all states open their criminal records to the public. Of those states that will release records to the public, many require fingerprints or signed release forms. The information that could be disclosed on the report includes the arrest record, criminal charges, fines, sentencing and incarceration information.
In states where records are not released, the best places to search for criminal record activity is at the city or county level with the county or district court clerk. In some counties, felony and misdemeanor records are maintained in a combined index, in others felonies and misdemeanor records must be checked separately. Many of these searches can be done with a phone call.
At last count, forty-three states have made available on the Internet portions of their databases of people convicted of sex crimes. Some of these sites offer searches of prior inmates and will show those individuals on probation, but most are restricted to "Class 3" offenders currently registered.
Databases of missing children are readily available on the Internet. Search under "missing children."
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09012010
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