Many local and state laws make certain data available to the public. This practice is a core feature of the American form of government. Public records include such things as birth and death records, arrest records, court records and real estate transactions. While we have a legal right to see this data, gaining access to various forms of this data is not necessarily a simple process. Such records are stored in different formats in a variety of locations. Certain records require that you have some level of technical expertise in order to gain access. With the internet being right here at our finger tips, I'm not only a firm believer in the concept of public records, but also the easy access to these records. To that end, I'm providing links to such data that is available on the internet. In some cases, I've also developed web-based interfaces to make it even easier to find what you're looking for.

Several of these links can be very helpful in doing informal background checks. You don't need to hire a service to do your background checks for you.

• Brown County, Wisconsin Land Records
• De Pere City Council Meetings
• De Pere Public Meetings
• De Pere School Districts Meetings
• Green Bay Municipal Court
• Wisconsin Circuit Court Records
• Wisconsin Delinquent Taxpayers
• Wisconsin Public School Employee Salaries
• Wisconsin Sex Offenders Registry

I've also included links for social media services. While such data is not public by law, it is indeed public by each user's choice (which one could argue is even more legit). These can be great sources of information about our activities. You will need an account on these services though in order to perform people searches.

• Facebook
• Twitter

I occasionally receive inquiries as to why I do this. It's important to understand that it wasn't my decision to make this data public. While it's a practice that I fully support, we were doing it many decades before I was born. The records are already public, I'm just trying to make it a bit easier for you to get to the data. On each of the pages linked above, I've included a link to the original source of the data; therefore, if you have questions about specific data that is in the public record, please contact the appropriate office or municipality. If you don't agree that certain pieces of data should be public, or if you're interested in making additional information available to the public, contact your elected officials.

Here are a few resources regarding public records:

• Public Records - wikipedia
• The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records, by Charles Davis and David Cuillier
• Wisconsin Dept of Administration
• Wisconsin Dept of Justice
• Wisconsin Public Records Board

I'm always looking for new ways to make this data more accessible. If you are aware of existing public records that I can link to or create a web interface for, please let me know.

Scott Crevier
smc@smcnet.com