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.
Although the government’s records are considered public property, and therefore open for the public scrutiny, there are some cases, which are restricted meaning that they are not open for the public’s eyes. These cases might be sensitive by nature, have already been sealed, expunged and in some instances, juveniles are involved in the cases. These cases are only open to law enforcement agencies.
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.
For those who have no access to online forms, they can still request for criminal information from the office. The person who requests the information should send the form “Criminal History information Request” and together with the feet to the FDLE. The processing and delivery time depends on the amount of information requested and the volume of requests the office receives although processing can take five days. Please note that although the FDLE is the central depository of all criminal information, the information might not be factual. The truth factor still depends on whether the office has a copy of the person’s fingerprints and that a comparison test is run.
Do take note that there are some public criminal records that are restricted from the public and can only be obtained by authorized law enforcement agencies. These cases are normally filed under sealed or expunged cases and cases where juveniles are involved. There is another option that is available for individuals who are looking for information and the internet is host to several free online search websites where one can carry out background checks.
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