How can I go about doing this? I found some places online where you can download and send in the poper form to the proper office. But from what I can tell it’s only for you. How do you get a “fbi file” on a deceased relative?
If the reletaive was not involved in interstate crime, then it is unlikely that the FBI would keep a file on him/her. If you would like a complete background check on a person to include criminal, traffic, civil, property etc. call your local Private Investigator.
Given privacy laws, I bet you can’t get it.
When I die, I hope nobody can find mine! I would just as soon my family assume the Meth lab in bathtub was planted there my the coroner.
That, and the tentacle-pornography collection.
There are two federal laws which give U.S. citizens the right to read many non-public government documents, including FBI files. They are The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act of 1974 (PA).
FOIA allows any citizen to get just about any government file, subject to certain very broad exceptions. As one can imagine, there are exceptions for national security and ongoing criminal investigations. There is also a general exception for the privacy of people whose personal information is contained in the government files. According to the DOJ’s FOIA reference guide (link below), when you submit a FOIA request about someone other than yourself which could impinge on their privacy, you should enclose either a written authorization from that person or proof of their death.
The Privacy Act allows a person to get information about himself, and many of the FOIA exceptions do not apply to requests under the PA, allowing the requester to get more information, but again, only about himself. My understanding is that the PA is not available to relatives, even if the subject of the request is dead, but it couldn’t hurt to ask for the information under the PA as long as you make clear that you the requestor are not the subject of the request but only a relative. The worst that’ll happen is they’ll say no.
These files aren’t free – most requesters have to pay for the time that government employees spend searching the files on their behalf as well as copying charges, although the fees charged vary depending on the requestor’s purpose. Unless you specify a higher fee amount in your request, the FOIA officer charged with attending to it will usually stop the search when the fees hit $25.00 and then call you for the authorization of additional funds. Fees can be waived under some circumstances, though.
http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/referenceguidemay99.htm is the U.S. Department of Justice’s FOIA/PA Reference Guide and has more detail on the process as well as the address to send your request.
–Cliffy
P.S. Bear_Nenno: The FBI did indeed maintain files on persons unconnected with interstate crime such as political activists and dissidents. Google COINTELPRO if you doubt this. It’s unthinkable that the Bureau has completely halted this arm of investigative activity, even if they no longer participate in chaos and disinformation campaigns as they did at the time. The FBI certainly does not keep a file on every person, but if Second’s relative was a member of various perfectly-legal activist groups, there’s a good chance there is an FBI file with his/her name on it.
–Cliffy