Monday, January 19, 2009

How To Retrieve Illinois Criminal Records?

By Jed Elaine

llinois criminal records are part of the public domain, entitling anyone to have access to these. Despite however being public records, the right to individual privacy is taken into account and the use of any information derived from these records is the subject of stringent laws and regulations. Using the information obtained for conducting a background check for employment purposes for example, would require prior consent from the person involved.

The first stop for any search of Illinois arrest records would be the Illinois State Police where information relating to all criminal matters is held.Any search there however, will involve payment of a non-refundable fee of $16.00. Apart from the State Police, you could also try one of the state Circuit Courts. A database is also held at Jackson County where searches can be conducted after payment of a $12.95 fee.

All law enforcement agencies are required to keep their criminal record databases regularly updated and well maintained. Any information collected will usually be shared with other law enforcement agencies and, as is often the case, with courts and even certain individuals. Records are usually updated at regular intervals, quarterly, monthly or even daily, depending on the typical operating procedure of the person in charge of these updates. The quality of arrest records information will depend on how up to date the database is and how well this is maintained.

Statistics would indicate that Illinois criminal records show a higher arrest rate than the national average over the recent years. Despite this statistic, the overall number of arrests in the state has shown a decline. Despite this statistic, the overall number of arrests in the state has shown a decline. In rough figures, this is approximately a 28% decrease in the number of arrests made over a 12 year period.

As with almost anything nowadays, the preferred route to searching Illinois criminal records is the internet. If the bureaucratic process becomes too time consuming with government agencies, private information providers are there to help. These commercial providers are also able to access private and proprietary networks as well as the more readily available public databases, making their services both practical and accurate. Search results can usually be downloaded within a matter of minutes.

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