Any time a person is involved with law enforcement or the New York justice system, the agency creates a document detailing what happened. This information is used by the government in a variety of ways. Judges often consider a person’s criminal record when executing a sentence. An arrest record includes items such as name, alias, occupation, address, eye color, fingerprints, and details of why the arrest was made. After arrest, a court date is usually set and, if convicted, a criminal record is drawn up.
Criminal Court Records: New York State has three systems for searching court records. One is called OCA, which requires an approved account. See http://ww2.nycourts.gov/apps/chrs/index.shtml. The system is intended for people or companies who need to use it frequently. System two is called eCourts – see https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/ecourtsMain and https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcrim_attorney/AttorneyWelcome. System three is called Decisions: see http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/search/query3.asp. This online portal is used for criminal and civil records of multiple county high courts. (See local counties below for other county-level options)
What does the New York Public Records Act say?
New York’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIL) helps ensure state citizens have access to public records.
New York State law requires governmental agencies to acknowledge receipt of your request within five days but no later than 20 days. All executive, legislative and state government agencies are subject to the Public Information Act.
What is a public arrest record?
An arrest report is a report prepared by a law enforcement agency following the arrest or arrest of a person, containing the details of the incident, the person’s personal information, and occasionally information about the person’s criminal record.
A detention record is often a key document in criminal proceedings and can play an important role in a later trial. The arrest record can remain in the public record for long periods of time, regardless of whether the suspect is ultimately convicted of the crimes for which he or she was originally arrested. This means that it is open to the general public.
Department of Justice Record “The Criminal Record”
The DCJS record is what is commonly known as one’s “record sheet”. This is the most complete record of an individual’s exposure to the criminal justice system. Every time a person is arrested in New York, DCJS receives information about the arrest and how the case was resolved. In New York, it is not possible to delete or “delete” these types of records like other states. However, in New York, certain records may be “sealed,” meaning records are only made accessible in limited situations expressly permitted by law.
What makes the DCJS registry notorious is that it is the only registry that contains records that have been “sealed”. There are some situations where DCJS is authorized to release a so-called “unsuppressed” record (meaning it contains everything, including things that have been sealed) and other situations where DCJS is authorized to release what is considered called a “suppressed” record (i.e. it only contains things that have not been sealed).
New York City Fair Chance Law Changes
In July 2021, New York City amended its Fair Chance Law to expand its protections for applicants and employees with certain types of criminal records. Under this law, employers must now wait until a conditional job offer has been renewed before conducting criminal investigations.
Employers are expected to separate their pre-employment background checks into two reports. The initial screening, which may be conducted prior to a conditional job offer, may include non-criminal background information such as the applicant’s work history, education and reference checks.