Thread: True Crime

Are police accounts and court records/transcripts available to the public when writing about a true crime?

Here in The Philippines, all public records are available to the public for a certain processing fee (No, this fee's legal, not the under-the-table bribing sort of thing to get some documents, though bribing sometimes occurs for the processing to be hastened). Records that can be requested include court transcripts, motions, decisions, criminal records and whatnot.

I don't know about the US but the situation shouldn't be different there, should it? I mean, criminal cases "People of the United States vs XXX" are public cases, right? Why should attending one be allowed, whilst their records prohibited? It doesn't exactly make sense.

A similar question came up a little while ago and one of the other members mentioned that in their jurisdiction they had a local version of the Freedom of Information Act. To use that one must fill out a form, complying with strict formats for the request, and you will only get your information packaged in a certain way. The government will not format the info to your request. They will go to their files, copy everything in the file, and give you the whole package. You must sort through the whole thing yourself and find what you are looking for. I would start by contacting the public affairs office of the police dept and the court.

Thank you for your help. It's good information.