For every crime that is prosecuted, there is a record kept.
These records are made a matter of public interest and you can access records on criminals in your area by requesting for criminal arrest records.
These records can be obtained by walking up to the police stations in your area.
You will usually tender your request and let it be known you will love to look in those records.
Usually, you should have someone in mind that you want to find out if the person was once a criminal or not.
This process if often long and takes a lot of time.
There is a always a better and easier way to do things.
If you do not have all the time in the world to queue for criminal arrest records in a police station, you can easily use the internet.
The internet takes you only about a few seconds before you get what you need.
You will not have to join any queue, spend money on gas, make long distance calls or even waste your time.
All you need to do is connect to a public record or background lookup site and access criminal arrest records for the person you are making a search on.
To do this online however, you will have to pay a token fee.
This token is usually in the range of $20 to $25 per year.
Now, that is a whole lot less than the price of gas you will burn when driving to the police station.
If you want it smart and fast, then use the internet.