Dear tristatematt-ga
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I have more than 20 years of professional law enforcement
experience and have quite a bit of first hand insight into criminal
records. Ideally, you?d need to obtain a record printout from the
National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in order to get a real good
look at someone?s record. Unfortunately you cannot do that unless you
are an authorized law enforcement officer or authorized agency. There
are some options though and I?ll explain where these paid services get
their information (with regard to New York) and direct to right to
them so you can do it yourself:
To accomplish this yourself you should be prepared for a daunting
task, but it CAN be done. The reason it will be so difficult is
without knowing precise facts you will have to rely on hearsay, legend
and rumor to make your inquires. By doing it yourself you?ll have to
make some phone calls, perhaps even pay a visit in person, if that is
required, and of course you?ll have to pay any applicable search and
copy fees that are sometimes based on ?per page? charges. It can be
quite expensive, especially if a search fails.
However, since you are determined to do it yourself, you should begin
by contacting the New York City Police Criminal Records Division. They
hold records confidential for 25 years before they can be released to
the public. They should be able to assist you ? or at least advise you
? about records prior to 1979, with the exception perhaps of the
period 1967-72 (* see below):
New York City Police Criminal Records Division
1 Police Plaza
New York, NY
(212) 374-3818
As you can see, the New York Police Department is enormous and you may
be required to contact any one (or more) of these agencies as well.
Wait until AFTER you?ve contacted the Criminal Records Division first
because what you may learn from them might narrow the number of
necessary contacts down considerably:
NYC POLICE DEPARTMENTS
http://www.allny.com/gov/nypd.html
If the person you are researching was sentenced to prison, your
contacts will be here ? and they too are quite lengthy:
NEW YORK CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES
http://www.docs.state.ny.us/faclist.html
If the person you are researching was paroled you might have some luck
with the NY Parole Board:
DIVISION OF PAROLE
http://unix2.nysed.gov/ils/agencies/dop.htm
You may also need to contact the New York Unified Court System. Here
you can see what records they have spanning various periods:
NEW YORK UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/records/supcrim00.htm
Finally ? and I say ?finally? not because it?s the final option but
because I think I?ve made my point about how difficult it will be ? if
you can pin the exact date down you might have some luck searching old
newspaper archives online or at your local library.
You should note though that there was a recent ?goof? involving about
1000 boxes of criminal records from New York City that were
accidentally sent to a paper mill instead of the archives. * These
records date from 1967 to 1972.
VILLAGE VOICE
?City?s Goof Destroys Old Criminal Records?
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0024/robbins.php
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
Defined above
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINES USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
NEW YORK, CRIMINAL, RECORDS, BACKGROUND, HISTORY |
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