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Why aren't public records public?

MaggieD

MaggieD

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Why isn't there a free site to check someone's background, especially criminal? How come these public records are all proprietary? Seems like it should be readily available/searchable from government databases.
 
MaggieD said:
Why isn't there a free site to check someone's background, especially criminal? How come these public records are all proprietary? Seems like it should be readily available/searchable from government databases.
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They aren't proprietary. You can get them, but you have to go to the trouble of going and getting them. These web sites charge for the service of doing that for you
 
MaggieD said:
Why isn't there a free site to check someone's background, especially criminal? How come these public records are all proprietary? Seems like it should be readily available/searchable from government databases.
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Um - that would be creepy if it were free, honestly.

It's actually a bit creepy you can still spy on people for low cost. It doesn't take much.
 
MaggieD said:
Why isn't there a free site to check someone's background, especially criminal? How come these public records are all proprietary? Seems like it should be readily available/searchable from government databases.
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Why isn't health care free?
 
They are public but you do have to go to the appropriate courthouse and usually pay a small fee to access them. If you want to do that, you're free to do so, but it can be a lot of work. Public doesn't mean free or easy, it just means available.
 
Cephus said:
They are public but you do have to go to the appropriate courthouse and usually pay a small fee to access them. If you want to do that, you're free to do so, but it can be a lot of work. Public doesn't mean free or easy, it just means available.
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Which is completely unacceptable given what could be easily be accomplished with modern technology. You have to pay seriously expensive fees to private services just to figure out what the law is in this country.
 
rathi said:
Which is completely unacceptable given what could be easily be accomplished with modern technology. You have to pay seriously expensive fees to private services just to figure out what the law is in this country.
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No, you don't have to do that, you can do all the footwork yourself and get the same information for little or nothing. You decide if you want to do the work yourself or pay someone else to do it.
 
MaggieD said:
Why isn't there a free site to check someone's background, especially criminal? How come these public records are all proprietary? Seems like it should be readily available/searchable from government databases.
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People get arrested routinely only to find out that evidence points to someone else. A police error shouldn't haunt someone
 
Cephus said:
No, you don't have to do that, you can do all the footwork yourself and get the same information for little or nothing. You decide if you want to do the work yourself or pay someone else to do it.
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I agree. When I'm curious about one law or another, I don't pay a lawyer...I look it up. Easy? Sometimes. Sometimes not. But it beats the alternative.
 
rathi said:
Which is completely unacceptable given what could be easily be accomplished with modern technology.
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I suspect that relatively few places have decided that publishing stuff online was worth the effort.
It just hasn't been done because it hasn't been done.
All that it would take is for enough taxpayers to request that it be done.
I think that there're just not enough people who're that interested.
 
personally, I think people should have to cite why they "need to know" before they can access information about other citizens.
 
tacomancer said:
People get arrested routinely only to find out that evidence points to someone else. A police error shouldn't haunt someone
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It shouldn't. But that's really a problem of the public's perception rather than anything else.

It's right that police arrest people.
It's right that arrest records be public.
It's wrong to decide that having been arrested means that someone is a no-good so-and-so.
 
Cephus said:
No, you don't have to do that, you can do all the footwork yourself and get the same information for little or nothing. You decide if you want to do the work yourself or pay someone else to do it.
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You misunderstand my point. I don't begrudge private businesses for doing the work themselves and charging for it, they are just doing what a business is supposed to do. Its our government that has failed to make our laws accessible to the public, which violates the social contract. If you expect people to follow laws, you damn well better not have barriers preventing you from being informed about the rules you will be punished for breaking.
 
Sex offender lists are pretty easy to look at. Most states have a free website to look at them. I am not sure if criminal records should be that accessible though. Once someone has been released from prison shouldn't they have some right to privacy too? It is one thing to go to a court house it is another to plaster personal info on a public website. However society seems to think it is okay for sex offenders, again I have mixed feelings about it.
 
Thrilla said:
personally, I think people should have to cite why they "need to know" before they can access information about other citizens.
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I think this a good point.
 
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