Free Public Criminal Records Online Searches

By Claire Dowell


The office of the Central Repository under the Pennsylvania State Police is the one that handles the PA criminal records. Such record is stored electronically using the Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History Records also known as PATCH.

The state of Pennsylvania uses PATCH to store and monitor the reports that the state receives. This includes the police arrest records which are generated by the officers for people who violated the laws. The online system of Pennsylvania even caters to users who have not registered to the system allowing authorities, organizations and even private individuals to access the records. Although, access to the arrest records of the state is open to the public, the information obtained from a public file is limited because of the criminal laws that the state of Pennsylvania has implemented.

Such limitation is evident to what the public can view or get from an arrest record generated through the system. Records of juveniles are not available for request unless it is done by individuals who are authorized to do so. A public file will not contain details about the witnesses well as the officer in charge. This is done for security purposes. Furthermore, an arrest record is made available to the public only if the case has been resolved r closed and no further investigations are using it. This is to help the investigators have a consistent and credible source of information.

The state of Pennsylvania only releases the documents to the person who owns the file. Authorized individuals also have access to the arrest records of Pennsylvania. This includes organizations, business owners or government officials. A fingerprint scan would cost only $15 while a name-based search would cost only $10. Authorized individuals are the only ones who are allowed to conduct a fingerprint search.

Aside from the online system, one can personally request it at the State Police Central Repository office of the state. Before going to the office, the state recommends downloading the form online to help speed up the process. The form has to be submitted to the said office and payment has to be made with a check amounting to $10 only or a money order. All of the necessary information has to be indicated on the form which can aid in the retrieval process. Also, the one who requested the file will be required to provide their contact details as well. This will only be used to track and document the access to the file.

Criminal Records Free to Public access is possible with some websites that promote their services. They do this to gather a lot of interested users and provide their service to a number of users. Residents of Pennsylvania do not need to worry about the accuracy since some websites are directly connected to the state's online database system.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment