Public Record Searches

People who are in favor of increased police surveillance, and decreased civil liberties will tell you that public records searches are not a new thing. Technically, this is the truth. Searching criminal records has always been legal for the average citizen. You could do a public records search on anyone you wanted in the 19th century, in fact. However, you would have had to search public records by yourself, journeying across the country to do so.

You see, public records searching the way it works nowadays is a phenomenon only recently made possible because of the technology that is available now. To put it briefly, criminal background searches were much more difficult before the Internet. The police, of course, could do public records search with relative ease for a while before that, but for the average citizen it could take months to find information on public records. You certainly couldn't log on to a website and do a public records search in minutes.

Some people might think that this is a good thing. Public records searches, in fact, are great for many purposes. A public record search can tell a landlord whether or not their potential tenant has been evicted from multiple houses, can tell a potential employer whether or not their employee is telling the truth about past criminal history, and can tell a concerned parent whether dangerous people live in the neighborhood that could be a threat to their children.

However, all of this information comes at a price. Public records searches are part of a culture that sees all of us as prey to the eyes of anyone who cares to watch. There are surveillance cameras on almost every major corner of almost every major metropolitan center in the world today. There are satellites watching us from the skies,And there are police in this country with increasing powers to detain,spy on,And imprison indefinitely. Is the convenience of public records searches worth the loss of freedom?

A lot of people might say that this is stating it a little bit too starkly, but public records searches aren't even the issue. The issue is the change of culture. Public records searches are part of a much broader public movement. As people become more comfortable with being spied on, and more resigned to the fact that they are going to be watched, Some of our most fundamental freedoms can be placed in jeopardy. If we let the culture change too much without paying any attention to it, we may be unable to change it back.

Summary

Public record searches are a great tool people can use to find out information. You can research people in history, or search for offenders in online databases. There is a fine line between a person's privacy, and matters which are in the public eye.

Related Sites