Oregon Criminal Records

The laws of the State of Oregon prevent private citizens from accessing complete criminal records or criminal history reports from third parties. Only Law enforcement agencies or authorized institutions may have access to that kind of material. It's possible to obtain limited records that reflect last year's convictions and arrests but, unless the subject of the investigation is a sex offender or under custody of the Department of Corrections, that's all that can be obtained through official channels in the State of Oregon.

For those who want to obtain their own personal complete criminal records or a third party's limited criminal record, the place to go is the Identification Services Section of the Oregon State Police. The Identification Services Section is in charge of maintaining and managing the Computerized Criminal History unit. This system keeps track of all criminal records on the State of Oregon, including sex offences and drug related crimes. In order to access a criminal record of a third party, it's necessary to provide their full name and date of birth, and to pay a fee of $10. If the requester doesn't have a consent form signed by the subject of the report, and if the subject has a criminal record at all, the Identification Services Section will notify the subject of the request and reveal the identity of the requester. Two weeks after the subject of the report has been notified, the requester will receive the report. The only way of requesting a personal criminal record is in person, as a positive fingerprint identification is required. To do so, the requester must purchase an authorized fingerprint card -costing $20-, and pay a $10 fee on top of that. The website of the Public Records Unit, belonging to the Oregon State Police, has a great deal of information in this regard.

The Department of Corrections of the State of Oregon has an online tool that can help performing background checks. The Oregon Offender Search engine gives information on offenders under the custody of the Department of Corrections. The search engine is quite simple and only allows searches by name or identification number. The returned reports are simple and clear, providing personal information on the subject, as well as the reasons for their conviction, their maximum date of release and a picture. For the reports on subjects on parole, some information on the parole officer is also provided. Visit the Department of Corrections of the State of Oregon to look up their search engine.

The State of Oregon maintains a whole website dedicated to their sex offender registry. The website consists on a clear and comprehensive search engine that allows the user to look for sex offenders by name, date of birth, approximate age, approximate physical description or location. The resulting records are really precise and exhaustive. Apart from a physical description, address, picture and owned vehicle information, the reports explain in detail the targeted victims and methods of the offender, as well as the restrictions imposed to the subject -such as avoiding contact with children or with drug users-. The reports are of incredible value to criminal researchers and to concerned citizens in contact with the sex offender.