Dupage County Criminal Record

Public Access to Criminal Records

Even with many of the states offering online public access to criminal records, the idea is still a hot debate topic for Pennsylvanians. In 2004, a group of state employees has been meeting for months quietly and behind closed doors. The issue is deciding whether or not online public access to criminal records ought to be adopted to make Pennsylvania criminal court information readily available to state citizens.
The state has introduced a computerized public access case-management system and database of criminal records and criminal court information. However, this new system has no accompanying policy on public information. Now, the Public Access Ad Hoc Committee, members of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, is meeting to determine what that policy would be and how it would affect access to criminal records.
A spokesman for the AOPC indicated that it was likely that not all public information are going to be available for public access in the criminal records database. Once a policy is approved, certain public records will continue to be withheld from an online database of criminal court information and criminal records.
Our inclination in Pennsylvania is to go slow, said Art Heinz, spokesman for the AOPC. The real concern is identity theft. Theres a difference between maintaining public access to files at a courthouse and publishing them on the Internet.
In December of the year prior to that, the AOPC let out what is intended to become a statewide database of criminal court information and criminal records available for public access. However, installation of the system was halted when 20 of the states 60 judicial districts denied approval of its use in March. The denial was spurred on after users, ranging from judges to docketing clerks, filed several thousand complaints about the system. As of last month, the help line of the AOPC had received more than 13,000 individual calls about the Common Pleas Case Management System.
The system set off at a rocky start and court officials are ready to admit this. Throughout the process, public access criminal records were on a tight rein. Information identifying specific criminal defendants and convicts has been tightly restricted. For instance, information like a convicted criminals age and street address details that help to distinguish between two people with the same name are not included in the online public access criminal records database. This is only one of the minor flaws that many a critic has pointed out about the system.
Today, the system now includes public access to address and date of birth in criminal records. However, access is only limited to judges, probation officers, and other court employees. Some critics maintain that online public access to criminal records is of questionable worth. They say that it could lead to confusion about an individuals identity as records are not complete, thus leading to several false negatives. A person who has never been charged with an offense may be depicted as having an arrest or conviction record due to the fact somebody with the same name has one.
By doing things this way, theyre putting a lot more people under suspicion, said David Patterson, clerk of courts for Westmoreland County.

Dupage County Criminal Record News

Dupage County Criminal Record

Go to the new RSS page and renew your subscription.]]>

IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!

DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Daniel P. Guerin could have sentenced the man, James W. French, to as long as seven years in prison for the assaults. Guerin cited French’s accomplished life and lack of a prior criminal record in imposing the jail term.

Ex-minister gets jail for molesting Naperville girl

Ursula Nailor was looking forward to moving out of her rented home in DuPage County and heading to Alabama ... Anderson has a long criminal record in Cook County, primarily for drug-related offenses, dating back to 1990, according to court ...

Relative: Suspect in slaying of 4 'was a time bomb'

An ex-convict from Naperville remained Thursday night in DuPage County Jail on $500,000 bail ... He was sent back to prison in June 2008, following a firearms-related crime in Villa Park. IDOC records showed he was paroled in December 2009 and discharged ...

Naperville ex-con charged in robbery, shooting

Elsner did point out that civil courtrooms in DuPage County already are wired for audio and video, though the criminal courtrooms are not ... petition the Supreme Court to allow cameras to record proceedings. Once a circuit is approved ...

Cook County to apply for new cameras in the courtroom experimental program

Judge George Bakalis reduced bail on Jan. 23 for a Libertyville man accused of committing a hate crime ... DuPage County Jail. An Elmhurst man charged in a fatal 2010 hit-and-run in Aurora is set to stand trial beginning Feb. 21, according to court records.

CourtWatch: Man Charged with Assaulting Girlfriend in Two Counties Dodges DuPage Charges (UPDATE)

Myles Burton, charged with felony criminal damage ... and was released from DuPage County Jail. Elmhurst—An Elmhurst man charged in a fatal 2010 hit-and-run in Aurora is set to stand trial beginning Feb. 21, according to court records.

Man Accused of Hate Crime Released from Jail After Judge Reduces Bail

Berlin said Olaska has no prior criminal record and there was no indication he and the victims knew each other previously. Tim Diamond, deputy chief of special prosecutions for the DuPage County state's attorney, said the stabbing followed a ...

No way to make sense' of Naperville teacher's slaying

Chammas is accused of running a records search on an informant involved in large drug investigation on May 12, 2011, DuPage County prosecutors Helen Kapas ... "There's no evidence any other crime occurred as a result of her running the information ...

Criminal Records Search