I’m not much of a news junkie or rumor monger, but recently 2 local cases have occured that I’d like to follow. So what I’m asking is how to keep up to date when arrests have been made, charges filed, and the local media have moved on. Plus I’m no fan of media hyperbole anyway, I’m more interested in, ya know, facts, evidence, that sort of thing, and all within the bounds of legal/puplic access, thanks all.
If your state has online access to court records that’s probably where you should look. It won’t be much and what is there is usually pretty vague, but you’ll be able to find out when court cases are coming up, what happened at said court cases, what kind of fine/jail/service they received.
Go to court and request the record.
That’s all good advice, but I don’t think it answers the OP. The OP is looking for a way to be informed when things happen in a particular case. So if there is a crime that is currently being investigated that the news just reported on, but the news probably won’t bother to mention anything as the investigation progresses… for instance a stolen bike or something where it may have been mentioned on a slow News Day, but there is no chance in seeing the follow up on the news. The OP wants to know how to keep track of something like this.
Court records will be able to tell you AFTER shit went down, but that’s about it.
And yea, once an arrest is made, he could track the progress of those particular charges and that particular defendant. But how is he going to be informed that a suspect in the stolen bike case was arrested. And who is going to tell him if an additional person was arrested in connection with the crime? Proably not going to find that unless he already knows about the arrests.
Is that what you’re after? If so… I have no clue where you could track such a thing.
If you set up a Google News Alert, it will notify you if the local newspapers report on it.
If that’s what he looking for, he’d probably have to go down to the police department and request the report. I assume if a bike is stolen and the owner files a report, it’s available. The question then is, if the bike is recovered or the officer does any work on that case does the original report get updated or cross referenced to the new report?
Re-reading the OP, he stated “So what I’m asking is how to keep up to date when arrests have been made, charges filed, and the local media have moved on”. I would assume after someone has been arrested and charged the rest of the scenario will play out in court in which case he should have access to it online.
I’ll give this a try, this is more what I’m after. A woman in my appt building was raped, and someone I know from work was arrested on sexual assault charge. They’re not related cases, but close enough to me that I like to keep up to date. I know they’ll be some information in the news, but I don’t want to miss it. Thanks
I see that your user info says you live in Calif. Most public records and court procedings are on-line now and are often searchable. I don’t know where exactly you are but try poking around your city or county web sites. If you know which court the cases will be tried in, you can go directly to their web site and search by the names of the parties involved or case number, if known. Many different agencies use these services, but it is also there for the public if you can find out where to look.
I live in a rural area of Oregon and I can read the daily police logs for my area, can access the jail roster, and can see the schedule and docket for the courtrooms. All on line, updated daily.
You probably can too.
For example here are some of the places I can check out for my area, there are more such as county property records, which will tell you who owns what properties and provides taxable value, etc.
This site provides the last week’s police dispatch reports if you cllick on the recent updates to the right.
http://www.astoriadispatch.org/go/site/458/
This site provides the county jail roster. Click on report for the day you are interested in and you will see everyone in custody, charges against, release dates, etc.
http://www.co.clatsop.or.us/default.asp?pageid=523&deptid=5
Here are a couple for you in Calif. from the Clatsop County Or. resourses/links section.
California Dept of Corrections
California Inmate Locator
http://www.corr.ca.gov/CDC/Inmate%20Locator.asp
Look around. If it is a public record or proceding it is probably available to you from where you sit.