guy I know killed an intruder here's the story

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Sorry POWDWERMAN, I believe you are wrong about this....Washington State shows all crimianl arrest. Regardless if the person has been arraigned, tried and or convicted. An arrest is an arrest and it does not just go away. Your criminal history check by LE will show the arrest, even if the charges were dismissed.

True, IF the check being run is a criminal history check. This is totally different from the check that's done during a routine traffic stop, where that information will not show up.

Driver's license and warrant checks are routine and dissemination of that info is only slightly limited. Criminal history checks are highly restricted, and an inquiry must be justified and documented.
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Okay, you guys have me confused now. Are you talking in general or just related to Washington state? In Florida your criminal arrest record is available to everyone over the internet. It doesn't matter if the charges were dismissed or you were found not guilty. It stays there unless you petition to get it removed. Maybe Florida's different due to the Sunshine Law, but it sounded to me like you were talking about this in general as if it applies to all states.
 
Okay, you guys have me confused now.
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Understandable, DD; it is confusing.

How restricted the information is depends on the source providing it. A criminal history provided by NCIC (FBI) is highly restricted and a query must be justified by the LE agency requesting it through a case number or other legitimate reason. Non-LE has absolutely NO access this.

On the other hand, if you're a card carrying, paid member of Lexis-Nexis, or other, similar organizations, you, as non-LE, can access the same info, although how in blue blazes THEY get the info is a mystery to me :confused: .

Same thing with driver's license or vehicle registration info. If you walk into my cop shop and ask who a particular car belongs to, we cannot, by law, give you that information. Hell, it's a violation to even let you glance at the computer screen. That has to be shielded from public view.

But again, you can go to the state DMV, and request and get the same information, no strings attached! Go figure!

Every state LE agency is bound by the strictest of restrictions in criminal history queries. The reason is that every state and local LE agency that uses NCIC (that's the vast majority of them) is bound by the FBI's user agreement. A violation of the rules can land the officer involved a whopping big fine, or even imprisonment!

But other governmental agencies (non-LE) that don't subscribe to NCIC, aren't bound by those rules, and so can disseminate info much more easily.

I know; it confuses the hell outta me too sometimes :D .
 
And what's really ridiculous is I hear them discussing all of these types of things on my scanner all the time. An officer calls in someone by name, even spells the name, and the info dispatcher comes back with their entire criminal background on clear transmissions for anyone that's listening to hear...including their home address.
 
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