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Public Records
Public records include all sorts of
information which include files accounts and other
information which a governmental authority is required to
maintain .although these records were not accessible
before to the normal public however with governmental
reforms in several states and countries these records are
now accessible to scrutiny by the public. All records
which have been maintained and upgraded by any sort of
governmental agencies come under the purview of public
records. Public records are a reflection of the health of
the whole society as such. Public records bring
accountability to every government run organizations as
you can ask them questions about things you might want to
know about them and there work. Most countries require
legal procedure to gain access to public records however
in some developed countries you can even get them online.
The following different types of records come under the
paradigm of public records
Criminal records
Criminal records contain all sorts of information starting
from crime scene investigation, identification, and arrest
and warrant information. The main reason behind keeping
such as a database is to help in future crime
investigation by studying the crime pattern and comparing
that with other crime patterns of previous cases in order
to come out with a possible set of suspects. Also criminal
records of individuals are used to bring up a prosecution
case by the lawyers. Normally
Criminal histories are maintained by law enforcement
agencies on all levels of government. Separate criminal
records may be maintained by the local sheriffs
department, states specialty police agency, traffic
police, highway petrol and central government information
bureaus.
Birth records
Normally birth records of all individuals are kept in the
form of birth certificates. These certificates are
normally stored in governmental records and are provided
by the new born parents or the hospital concerned. These
certificates are normally prepared by the doctors who were
looking after the new borns mother at the time of child
birth. The official birth records are usually stored at a
government record office. In Canada and the United States
of America, it is stored with the government of the
receiver's state or province.
Death records
Death records are recorded at the state level in a central
repository which is usually the bureau of vital
statistics. However maintaining vital death record was not
a compulsion and rules varied from state to state. Some
states have excellent indexes to many of these records and
are very helpful in securing certified copies of the
certificates. |
