How and Why You Would Obtain a Police Record

Posted: May 06, 2010 |

In this day and age and with the availability of records, there are many reasons why someone would want to obtain a police record. Police records are extremely meaningful documents. They are records of statements made to the police by people involved in a complaint. These important records also detail the police officer's observations and thoughts about the situation and the people involved. Police officers' skills and training are called upon to observe details and as such, their records are heavily relied on in court proceedings. Police records, combined with physical evidence, form the basis on which cases are built and convictions won.

There are many reasons why an individual, agency or business would wish to obtain a police record. Knowing a job applicant's criminal background is important, especially if it involves jobs working with children, handling money, accessing sensitive information and security jobs. Other applicable situations include adoption agencies, where they need to be assured that prospective parents have clean records. A new neighbour's actions might spark suspicion, and so making a check into his police record may be a prudent course of action. Police reports are also important for screening potential roommates and, for the landlord, checking out prospective tenants.

Though The Freedom of Information Act (FOA) has made it far easier to obtain a police record than in times past, certain steps need to be followed to request a record. Firstly, a request for a police record must be filed, usually with the police department. It must be stated that this is an FOA records request. Be as specific as possible about what information is being sought. The requester must include his name and address. The agency must respond within 20 days and either accept or deny the request. The information returned on this request will include only that information that the police department has on file. For example if someone made a request at the San Diego city police department, it will not include information the San Diego County Sheriffs department might have. A separate request will have to be made for that data.

It isn't practical or even possible to research each police department in every county and in every state to obtain a police record. In most cases, the individual seeking the record would be ignorant of every place the person being checked has lived or visited. There are professional providers that have massive public record databases. These databases are maintained by private companies and provide nationwide information. Making use of these businesses makes information retrieval more efficient and less expensive than searching each county individually. These companies are online, making it fast and easy to access records.

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