Who maintains arrest records and what do they include?
Local police departments and the State Department of Justice keep arrest records. According to law, they cannot show them to anyone except law enforcement officers and may only show records of your convictions to certain licensing agencies, which have a right by state law to investigate your criminal background. However in reality many people, including private investigators, have access to your criminal record. The arrest record includes when and why you were arrested, whether the charges against you were dropped or whether you were convicted of the charges, and the subsequent sentence imposed. Both pleading guilty and being found guilty after a trial equally count as convictions. If you are convicted of committing a misdemeanor, placed on probation and stay out of trouble for the period of that probation, you may be able to have the conviction removed from your record for such purposes as employment background checks after probation is successfully completed. If you are convicted of
