Criminal Records Free To Public Now Accessible Online

By Claire Dowell


Criminal background investigations have become a standard procedure nowadays - be it in business or government undertakings. Hiring people for employment purposes, for instance, requires a very stringent process. Likewise, in the government sector specifically in those entities whose purpose is to ensure national security; and public health and safety, the same stringency is applied. Take uniformed personnel for example and the departments they work for. Although each organization has a specific purpose, all of them work together hand in hand for a common goal - to ensure peace and order; and safety and security for the general public.

In the state of Illinois, criminal records are housed in the state's primary repository which is the Illinois State Police, Bureau of Identification. This is the entity responsible for storing, protecting and disseminating such crucial documents. As mandated by the Uniform Conviction Information Act (UCIA) of 1991, anyone who wishes suss out the criminal history of any individual whose identity is questionable can do so by filing an entreaty to the said department.

With these crucial documents made readily available for the public's needs - in background check purposes, for instance - risks can somehow be mitigated by knowing the criminal history of certain individuals especially those who have the propensity to commit another crime. In the process of employing people, this is very helpful in determining as to who should be allowed to get in the company or not so as to protect the company and its people. In the state of Illinois, records of criminal convictions as well as those of arrests are stored and managed by the Illinois State Police as it is the state's central repository for such noteworthy registers.

Like any other document retrieval services, obtaining criminal records also service requires a certain payment. The payment differs as to what type of criminal record you'd like to obtain - either fingerprint which is $20 or non-fingerprint which requires a fee of only $16. These fees however are non-refundable albeit the record you filed an entreaty for is not found as it retains to be payment to the search itself.

Should you wish to investigate on someone's criminal history for whatever legitimate purposes, you can do so by placing a request for Illinois criminal records to the said office. Charges for such may vary from one county to another, though. The payment for a criminal record entreaty in the state of Illinois depends as to what type of criminal record you wish to obtain. There are two types of such namely the fingerprint ($20) and the non-fingerprint ($16). Fingerprint background investigations utilizes the state criminal databases as well as the FBI thereby presenting a more comprehensive and complete criminal profile of the person whose background is being sussed out. Non-fingerprint checks are known in layman's term as "name-based" searches. This is not as comprehensive as the former because the search is run against a predetermined registers which are commercially available. For the latter, it would be very helpful to provide as much information as you can about the individual so as to easily locate the record requested.

Because the state is held accountable for it citizenry, records including free public arrest records and documents on criminal convictions are unrestricted. Today, with the emergence of computers, mobile phones and of course the Internet, the method of record procurement has truly taken a giant leap. Through the online method, you can already procure any public records you desire at anytime anywhere in the most convenient and expedited manner.




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