Public Criminal Records
By Jennifer Bailey
Public criminal records are those criminal records at the national level which
can be obtained by any private citizen without any form of government
authorization either via internet or fee-based systems.
Public access to the state criminal records is not possible in most of cases
because they are kept in state depositories. In contrast, Non-Public records are
held by the government and are accessible only to criminal justice firms and
other agencies that have been granted statutory authority to access the records.
Public records include government contracts with businesses, birth, marriage,
and death records, court files, arrest records, property ownership and tax
information, minutes of meetings of government entities, driver's license
information, occupational licenses, and Securities and Exchange Commission
filings. Almost all the local, state, and federal courts and government agencies
have been increasingly making public criminal records available on web sites
since the mid-1990s.
There are some limitations in cases of public criminal record. Usually, criminal
records include the statements of victims and witnesses and other highly
sensitive personal information. Once all this information has become part of the
public criminal record, the identities of the witnesses are revealed and their
personal safety can be at risk sometimes. Further, if there any errors in the
records, they will have a highly negative consequence on the reputation of the
individuals.
Government agencies and court systems limit accessibility of the information
they have posted online or offline to reduce the risks involved in the public
accessibility of the criminal records. These agencies have to pass on a
regulation stating that investigative reporters and researchers are required to
enter into a confidentiality agreement with the court not to publish the
personal identification information for having the accessibility of the full
text of the record on the payment of certain prescribed fee.
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