You can find Washington criminal records directly online just by accessing the correct website. This guide will show anyone how to perform a Washington criminal records search from any device. Washington like every state allows for public record searching. Washington state has a population of just over 7.4 million people so there will be a lot of public record data that is created each year. Let us see how to find these types of criminal records in Washington.
How to search for Washington Criminal Records
There are a few ways that you should start a search for criminal records in Washington. We will explore those ways below.
Courthouse search
Try searching the clerk of courts within the courthouse that the crime took place at. So, if you know the county in Washington that the crime took place in? if so, Google the county courthouse like this:
- Open up Google browser
- Search the following term: “Mason County Washington Courthouse”
- This should provide the correct courthouse to start your online search.
If you are not sure you can still try searching court records from the Washington court website. You can find court dates, case searches, name searches and more directly online.
Search services
Use a search service to find public records and criminal data in Washington state. All that is needed is a first and last name to start off a search. The system will search federal, state, and county data all behind the scenes. The user does not have to do anything else but initiates the search. Because of this is one of the most effective ways to find public data across the United States
Sex offender data in Washington State
Sex offender searching is an important aspect of criminal data. These searches are extremely important in showing someone who and where a sex offender is around a certain area. Keep in mind that not all sex offender data may be available within the registry because its state has its separate laws of who and for how long someone could be on the registry.
Sheriff websites for warrants
Do not forget about searching for warrants and other types of public records from sheriff websites. You will want to know the county that the crime took place in to narrow down the search. The same way you would search for courthouse records in terms of finding the county property should be done the same way for finding Sheriff websites by county.
Washington Public Records Law – Its your right to view public data
You have a right to view public record data in Washington. If a record is not locked by court view then most likely you can view the record. The Washington public records law that was passed in the year of 1972 is called the Public Disclosure Act, that is covered within the RCW 42.56 act. 2006 was the year that it was also expanded on to include access to additional public record data. There are records that are not included or that are exempt under the above act, they are:
- Library records
- Juvenile records
- Proprietary information
- Health care records
- Security related records
- Coroner records
Explore washington criminal statistics
The below data is important in understanding the criminal trends that Washington state faces. This data is an average from the years of 2010 to 2017. The figures are from the Uniform Reporting Agency of the FBI. They provide information to the general public from all states.
