free criminal records

Many states offer online public access to the criminal records of the state. In Pennsylvania, this has turned into a hot debate by both citizens and state employees. Since 2004, a select group of state employees have quietly been meeting behind closed doors. They discuss and decide issues related to online public access to criminal records of the state and making it easily available to the state's citizens.

Pennsylvania has however, introduced a public access computerized case-management system with a database offering criminal court information and criminal records. This system however, does not have any accompanying policy regarding public information. The Public Access Ad Hoc Committee and the members of the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts or AOPC are meeting to determine and establish a policy for public access to criminal records.

An AOPC spokesman indicated that there would be some constraints on access to public information and not all criminal data would be open for database access. This policy once approved, will withhold certain public records from the criminal court procedures from being accessed through an online database.

Art Heinz, spokesman for the AOPC addressed this issue. 'Our inclination in Pennsylvania is to go slow. The real concern is identity theft. There's a difference between maintaining public access to files at a courthouse and publishing them on the Internet.'

In the past, the AOPC has allowed the statewide database containing criminal court information and records to be available for public access. The installation of the system was halted in March when of the 60 judicial districts, twenty districts denied approval. This denial was propelled by users who ranged from docketing clerks to judges filing thousands of complaints regarding the system. As of recently, the AOPC has received over thirteen thousand individual calls regarding the Common Pleas Case Management System.

Even though court officials readily admit to the system's rocky start, all through the process, the public access criminal records were held with a tight rein. Access has been highly restricted on information that identifies specific criminal defendants and convicts. Information regarding a criminal's address or age and other details that could distinguish between two people having the same name were not a part of the public access criminal database online. Critics point out that this is one of many minor flaws present in the system.

Today's system includes public access to dates of birth and addresses in criminal records. Even so this access is limited to probation officers, judges, court employees etc. Critics maintain the questionable worth of public access to criminal records. According to the critics there could be mistaken identity, confusions and conclusions as the records are incomplete producing false negatives and false positives. An honest citizen without an arrest record could show up as if having an arrest or conviction and vice versa due to having the same name as a criminal. Without additional information, many innocent citizens tend to become suspects.

As David Patterson, clerk of courts for Westmoreland County put it: 'By doing things this way, they're putting a lot more people under suspicion.'