Smith County Arrest Records

Residents in Smith County, Texas who are looking for arrest and criminal reports are encouraged to know their rights when requesting for the Smith County arrest records. This only means that certain guidelines do exist to govern how the important pieces of information should be handled. Some of the rights and responsibilities of the applicants include the immediate access to information but provided that it is not classified, treatment will be equal whether you are physically challenged or not and whatsoever, get the amount of fee that you will be paying in return for the request, receive a response from the Attorney General’s office on the said request.

On another note, the local government itself should also follow through its responsibilities including the proper setup of procedures for inspecting or copying of public data, be fair to everybody when accommodating their request, Records’ Department personnel should be fully oriented on the laws applied on the retrieval of legal documents and the other obligations which the office in-charge should be made aware of. Generally, if you want further knowledge on your rights you can anytime read the Texas Government Code, Chapter 552 for a more detailed legal document.

The steps in placing a records’ request are easy to follow. First, formally submit a written application by mail, fax, or walk-in to the office of the Attorney General or to the County Sheriff’s office. Second, be complete and specific as to what information you are exactly asking for so they can right away locate it. Lastly, you need to state your reasons for doing the search. Once all the requirements are forwarded to the designated office you will then have to wait for a few days, usually 10 business days. The Public Information Officer will send you a letter as to when exactly you will receive the requested documents.

Technically, all the requests will specifically go to the Criminal Investigation Division for review. If they see it as a valid request then they start processing the application. If you can’t physically perform the request you may always call the Commissioner’s Court Staff for special assistance as implied in the American With Disabilities Act.

Today, running a records check whether at the state or local level can be absolutely done over the web without much complications. But, you just have to be very careful because not all of the online record providers are legitimate. You need to have an assurance from the service provider you chose before you make any payment. Otherwise, you won’t get anything in return for the amount that you have paid.

The Smith County of Texas has an official website which features the essential law enforcement services for the general public. They include the following:

• – Procedure on how to retrieve the information
• – County Sheriff’s office
• – Criminal Investigations Division
• – Smith County Crime Prevention
• – Smith County Jail Operations

You can also get some help from the other legal resources within the State like the following:

• -Supreme Court of Texas
• – Judicial Records Search Database
• – Texas Attorney General
• – Office of Court Administration
• – Texas Secretary of State