Monday, March 31, 2014

Quick Access To Florida Free Public Criminal Records

By Ben Kingsley


Individuals who are interested in checking out a person's history or their own would find the Florida Arrest Records by the FDLE a perfect way to do so. The State's central repository holds all records that are criminal by nature and updated regularly. The FDLE or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement includes a self-service central, which everybody can access.

The law makes it possible for one to obtain or have a copy of all public records though there are exceptions to the rule. These include cases that the State has already sealed and expunged and juvenile cases that did not result in conviction. The access to these cases is highly classified and only law enforcement agencies or authorized ones are allowed access.

The FDLE self-service application is easy to use although one has to pay $24 for every report that he/she might want. Once the person doing the research looks for the information, depending on the information provided, the search query might return more than one result. The researcher has the option to choose from the results provided. Do remember that once one clicks to retrieve the record that they want, they will be charged the fee.

The researcher must indicate his/her credit card information before being able to access the self-service application. Once the person starts searching, the fee is charged to their credit card. A no-result or match might come up in certain cases. As the fee is non-refundable, it is important to make sure that one fills in the information completely. The FDLE will send an email to verify that the fee is charged on the person's credit card as well as other services that the latter might use. The site is SSL encrypted and does not keep a record of the person's credit card so one has to indicate it manually every time they avail of the service. Records are available and can be printed directly by the researcher or sent to their own email address. The FDLE does not send information via regular mail. Should the researcher need certification, it is highly advised to do it by sending the form to the office as well as the payment.

Another option open is for researchers to print the "Criminal History Information Request" form, attach the $24 in cheque or money order and mail it to the FDLE office. Processing time would take about a week's time including delivery time. Although the FDLE is the central repository of all criminal records, the results might not be factual unless the FDLE has a fingerprint card and a comparison is performed to determine if the record and the actual person are the same.

For public criminal records that are restricted, researchers might want to check out online search engine sites that do offer this for free. Although some of the cases might be restricted, such as juvenile records, one can find other records that are not restricted to the public and they can start their information gathering there.




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