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The Maine State Bureau of Identification retains all criminal history records for the state. On its website, it’s possible to search and seek records of convictions.
What Are Criminal Records?
Criminal records are those that hold all of a person’s criminal history. This can include the local, state, and federal criminal information. The record may also include information about the person, such as their address, date of birth, name, any aliases they have, fingerprints ,and a photograph.
Your criminal records may include:
- Past arrest information
- Current and pending charges
- Acquitted charges
- Dismissed charges
- Warrants
Any misdemeanors or felonies will also be listed on this report.
How Are Criminal Records Used?
Criminal records can be used in many ways. Usually, they are searched during a background check.
Background checks may happen for several reasons, such as:
- Employment, where a company wants to know about a potential employee
- School admittance, such as when you apply to a college or university
- Property rental
- Security clearance
- Purchasing weapons or firearms, since felons are not able to purchase or own weapons in most cases
- Military service
- Fostering or adopting
- Voter registration
- For foreign travel
- For law enforcement purposes, like as a part of a criminal investigation
How Can Someone Access Your Criminal Records?
Most of the time, you will need to give consent for another person or organization to access your criminal record. However, law enforcement and those in the government may have open access. You may also have to give permission for certain kinds of purchases, such as if you want to purchase a firearm.
Public
The public can access your record of convictions and other public records such as divorce or marital history, DUI records, and former addresses. They will need to pay a fee to access this information.
Sex Crimes
Sex crime convictions are relatively open to the public because of the sex offender registry. Visiting the state’s sex offender website, such as the Maine Sex Offender Registry, makes searching simple. Some people remain on the registry for 10 years and others remain for life, depending upon the conviction. Maine also is a National Sex Registry participant, which means that the public can search nationally for sex offenses that an individual might have committed. These searches are free.
How Can You Request a Criminal Record?
If you want to request your criminal record or another person’s, then you can do so by going to the SBI Criminal Records Information page. There, you will find specific instructions on how to obtain a criminal record for yourself or someone else. Specific rules apply to these applications and information you obtain about another individual may only be used for certain legally restricted purposes. When searching for another person’s record, you’ll need to know their name and date of birth. The system will return the results of the search to your email within two hours.
You will need to pay for the fine with the traffic court in your parish. If you’ve lost your ticket, you can contact your parish for more information on the fine and where to send it.