Blotter Spotter - Summary to Date

The Blotter Spotter - Summary to Date

One of the main topics covered on this blog is online blotters -- that is, online records of people who have been arrested but not convicted of a crime.  Blotters and arrest records, traditionally found in local newspapers, have long been considered public information. But making these records available online makes "public" a much larger pool of people that can quickly and easily access such records from across the world with far less effort than it would take to get ahold of a local paper or get to city hall - even in your own municipality.  Does this benefit society and help fight crime, or does it take something away from the American principle of "innocent until proven guilty" through the court of public opinion?

Here is a list of blotters found so far:

California

• Los Angeles
• Orange County -- There are 3 places to go from this page, at the bottom from "eServices...":
  1. Who's in Jail [Or pick by first letter of last name, here]
  2. Arrest Log
  3. Sheriff's Blotter [which occasionally has detailed arrest information for incidents under each city]
• San Diego

Colorado

• Grand Junction (in The Daily Sentinel)

Florida

• State of Florida - Department of Corrections (by way of Bruce Schneier thru Dave Farber’s IP listserve)
• Hernando County
• Hillsborough County
• Palm Beach County
                - Alternatively, blotter information for PBC is also available through the Palm Beach Post

Georgia

• Gwinnett County

Indiana

• Porter County

Iowa

• Iowa City

Kansas

• Johnson County (Booking report)
  [Inmate search for Johnson County]

Maryland

• Baltimore [A blotter archive via the Baltimore Sun]

Minnesota

• State, County and law enforcement levels
• Dakota County

New York

• Oneida County

North Carolina

• Mecklenburg

Pennsylvania

• Allegheny County- forthcoming

Texas

• Killeen (in the Killeen Daily Herald)

Washington

• Longview (in The Daily News)
• Mason County

Please e-mail me if you know of any online blotters that I have not yet found(enewton@cmu.edu).

(For a summary of laws on future and current employers' use of arrest records, go here.)

Go here for a form online for the state of California to change your record.  According to the form, the state's Penal Code Section 851.8(a) provides the following "opt-out":  “In any case where a person has been arrested and no accusatory pleading has been filed, the person arrested may petition the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the offense to destroy its records of the arrest...." Penal Code 851.8(c) further provides “In any case where a person has been arrested, and an accusatory pleading has been filed, but where no conviction has occurred, the defendant may, at any time after dismissal of the action, petition the court which dismissed the action for a finding that the defendant is factually innocent of the charges for which the arrest was made...."