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Unless officially sealed, all records generated by government entities are considered public. That means, in the Bronx, criminal histories are also public record. Fortunately, most people won’t want to pay the hefty price of obtaining those records. However, if you’re in the business of looking up criminal court cases in New York City, then this is what you’ll need to know. 

What Are Bronx County Arrest Records?

Arrest records are records pertaining to an arrest. Does that sound too simple to be true? Fortunately, that’s all there is to it. Unlike other documents, like court dockets, arrest records are pretty much what the phrase “arrest records” implies. These documents, generated by law enforcement officers (LEOs) provide in-depth details about a suspected offender’s arrest.

Unfortunately, arrest records can stay on your record even if you are never convicted of the crime. If a police officer has ever arrested you for anything and filed the official paperwork, it will remain on your record (and show up in background checks) until it is expunged or sealed. On the bright side, there are several laws and regulations in New York that help to prevent people from discriminating against you based on your arrest history (or criminal history, for that matter).

Both the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law make it illegal to fire, penalize, or fail to hire an individual solely on the basis of their past history of arrests.

Bronx County arrest records are records of arrests in Bronx County. To be clear, it does not matter whether you live in that county. What matters is whether you were arrested in that county. For example, let’s say a person who lives in Kings County gets arrested for drunk driving in Bronx County. That arrest record will be generated, stored, and maintained in Bronx County’s filing system.

Bronx County arrest records are included when the county submits crime reports to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. They’re then collated, analyzed, and used to generate insights that the organization posts on its website. Fortunately, that information, when posted, does not include identifying information of the individuals who were arrested. 

What Information Is Included?

Unfortunately, quite a bit of identifying information is included with your arrest records in the Bronx. So much so that there is virtually no way that you could convince somebody that the person on that record is not you. Here’s a complete list of all of the information listed in a Bronx County arrest record:

• Your full name (first, middle, and last).
• Your mugshot (the photograph the police took of you when booking you).
• Your race.
• Your age.
• Your gender.
• Your height.
• Your weight at the time of the arrest.
• Any other information the arresting officer uses to describe you physically.
• The arresting officer’s official identifying information.
• The reason for the arrest.
• The location where the arrest took place.
• The date of the arrest.
• And the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

As you can tell, it would be quite hard to find any uncertainty when looking at a Bronx County arrest record. All of that information quite concretely confirms the identity of the individual who was arrested. That last bullet point, however, might be a little vague. So, let’s take a moment to talk about what exactly “the circumstances surrounding the arrest” entails.

The circumstances surrounding an arrest are the “how” of the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” when cataloging arrests. That information is contained within a report written by the arresting officer, in which they describe the chain of events pertaining to the arrest and the timeline in which those events took place.

Here’s an example. If you are arrested for reckless driving in Bronx County, the circumstances of the arrest would likely include all of the following pieces of information:

• Why the officer pulled you over.
• How they approached you.
• How they determined that you broke the law.
• Anything you said during the encounter.
• How you reacted to the officer attempting to take you into custody.

Of course, the government in all its limitless bureaucracy generates a massive amount of paperwork every year. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise at this point in the article when we say that these records can be quite informative for individuals who checking into your background.

But remember, arrests are not necessarily convictions. Just because you have an arrest record doesn’t mean you have a criminal record. These two kinds of records are similar in many ways but enjoy a few highly important key differences.

What Are Bronx County Criminal Records?

Criminal records are much more comprehensive than arrest records. In the Bronx, criminal records include several other kinds of records all wrapped up and consolidated in one convenient place. Those records are as follows:

• Arrest records.
• Past and present charges.
• Records of court proceedings (court records).
• Any previous sentences (criminal history).
• Incarceration details (jail records).

All of this information comes together to form your criminal record. Criminal records can appear in background checks when employers or other investigators search for you. That means that all of the above information (unless it is officially sealed or expunged) can find its way into the hands of people who you might not want to see it.

On the bright side, as with arrest records, there are laws in the Bronx that prevent people from discriminating against individuals who have criminal records. The state and city Human Rights Laws that we talked about earlier prevent people from unjustly persecuting you based solely on the fact that you have a criminal history.

If you have been fired, penalized, or not hired for no other reason than that you have a criminal record, you might be entitled to financial compensation in the form of a lawsuit.

How Do I Get Bronx County Criminal Records?

If you’re asking how you earn a criminal record in Bronx County, the answer is simple: get arrested, lose your case, and get convicted. But if you’re asking how to obtain a copy of your criminal record (or somebody else’s), the processes are a great deal different.

How to Get a Copy of Your Own Bronx County Criminal Record

Anybody who wants to get a copy of their own Bronx County criminal records will need to reach out to a fingerprinting service approved by the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and have their fingerprints taken. Since your fingerprints are already in the system, as they are for everybody who has been previously convicted of a crime, don’t think of this as a breach of your privacy.

To have your fingerprints taken, you’ll need to bring the following to your fingerprinting appointment:

• A valid, government-issued photo ID.
• $13.75 in either cash, card, or money order.

Next, you’ll need to wait in line for the fingerprinting agent to call your name and get your fingerprints. After the fingerprinting, you will be given a copy of your fingerprints. Send that copy to the DCJS as soon as possible.

The DCJS will begin processing your request for your criminal record as soon as it receives your fingerprints. Once it’s located your records, it will send them to you by mail. There is currently no digital option for any step of this process.

How to Get a Copy of Somebody Else’s Bronx County Criminal Record

If you’re interested in looking up somebody else’s official criminal record, the price is going to be much higher. Instead of paying $13.75 like you would if you were getting your own records, you’ll need to pay $95 for this process.

The New York State Office of Court Administration offers the option for anybody to perform a criminal history record search (CHRS). The price of that service for the general public is $95. On the bright side, unlike when searching for your own records, this process can be completed electronically over the Internet.

Simply go to the court’s On-line Direct Access webpage, scroll down to the bottom, and click “Create Account / Submit Search.” If that doesn’t work for you, then you can still submit a request by mail or in person by submitting a completed copy of the official Criminal History Record Search Form to the following address:

Criminal History Record Search
NYS Office of Court Administration
Office of Administration Services
Criminal History Record Search
25 Beaver Street (Room 840 – Front Desk)
New York, NY 10004

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