"The Privacy Act"

[cdwjava]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_Act_of_1974

This privacy act.

Oh, THAT "privacy act" ... one that applies to the feds and not to the states, and has sufficient administrative provisions to permit the release of such information under the right circumstances.

I don't believe the feds release criminal offender records, but states are certainly able to do so if they choose to.

- Carl

[aaron]

But, as I said, most agencies lack the resources to go knocking on doors to serve these warrants. Unless they are for serious offenses, we very often don't go hunting them down - there just is not enough time or officers to do this regularly.

One officer, caught in a somewhat cynical mood, put it to me this way: "We arrest them and get them to court. If the courts let them go, getting them a second time isn't a priority."

[cdwjava]

One officer, caught in a somewhat cynical mood, put it to me this way: "We arrest them and get them to court. If the courts let them go, getting them a second time isn't a priority."

Actually, I like the warrant arrests ... we get them off the street, we don't have to pay the booking fee, and when they piss off the judge they are more likely to get what they have coming to them.

- Carl

[blueeagle]

Whether a warrant would be publicly acknowledged is a matter of policy. One can also peruse court recordws to determine if a warrant has been issued. Court records (including records of convictions) are NOT protected from public view in any state to the best of my knowledge.

- carl

Really? I was under the impression that police/courts needed written consent from the defendant in order to release information.

Two very broad (and untrue) generalizations. We serve warrants all the time. However, most police agencies do not have a fugitive warrant detail so they must be sought while on discretionary time, or, they must be served when the person is contacted in other activity (the most common of these is in traffic stops).

Can't police get a warrant the same day? All you have to do is present probable cause to a magistrate, and he will issue an arrest warrant. After you have the warrant, drive right back to the defendants house and bring him in! It would only take a few hours...

[cdwjava]

Really? I was under the impression that police/courts needed written consent from the defendant in order to release information.

The police and the courts are not generally the ones releasing state criminal offender records - the state is.

In most/all states police have some restrictions on what information can be released and under what circumstances, and in others (like CA) the agency can CHOOSE to release a lot of info or it can withhold the item as an investigative file ... at least until the requestor goes to court to compel the release.

Court records are almost always public.

Can't police get a warrant the same day? All you have to do is present probable cause to a magistrate, and he will issue an arrest warrant. After you have the warrant, drive right back to the defendants house and bring him in! It would only take a few hours...

It does not happen that way in most states - and certainly not in mine. We generally have to file through the DA, the DA presents it to the court, and THEN we get the arrest warrant. To hand carry a warrant through the process would be time consuming and extremely unusual in my state. In some counties the time from report to warrant can be about four weeks. In my county it is about 72 hours unless additional follow-up is needed.

It is much easier to just make the arrest based upon probable cause. Warrants are generally sought for an initial complaint when the crime is cold or there are uissues that make the matter a little touchy.

- Carl