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- Update, June 1, 2007: Since its purchase by ChoicePoint, Rapsheets can now be found at http://www.knowx.com/rapsheets/
- Rapsheets.com offers registered users access to criminal records on over 20 million individuals in 30 states (and selected counties/buroughs in Florida, New York, Tennessee and Texas). In just two years, the database has grown from 4 states to 30. When asked why my state (California) was missing, I was informed that California was “another planet” in the criminal record world! Rapsheets.com was developed by Memphis, Tennessee's legal newspaper, The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc.
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Rapsheets.com gathers its data from state, county and local government agencies' public records. In some cases, they are able to provide direct connection to state computers, resulting in “real-time” searches. The site is updated monthly. Results typically display the defendant's name, DOB, race, sex, offense date, offense description, disposition, disposition date, case #, county of disposition, and the sentence.
- Coverage varies state to state. Rapsheets.com clearly lists its coverage for each state at http://www.rapsheets.com/aboutdata.asp.
- For example, Tennessee criminal records can be searched statewide—a simultaneous
search of 900,000 records from all 95 counties (back to 1990). On the
other hand, the criminal records of 2 million North Carolina persons
from all county district and superior courts cannot be searched statewide—one
must select a county, and search county by county. With a subscription
fee of $14.95 monthly and searching priced at
$3.00 per search, it's a great deal for the statewide searches, but
could get out of hand with the “county by county” searches.
Rapsheets.com also provides some non-criminal searching (click on “other searches”) to verify a name, a social security number or a residential address. These searches cost from $1.00-$2.00.
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