Legal Notice · Required Disclosure

FCRA Notice

Open Public Records is not a consumer reporting agency, and the information on this site may not be used to make decisions covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What this site is

Open Public Records is a transparency watchdog and a journalistic research index. We publish, mirror, and rate access to public-record information already published by government agencies — courts, prison systems, police departments, regulatory bodies, and federal data sets.

The data on this site is aggregated from official, public sources. Every record is sourced and verifiable against the originating agency.

What this site is NOT

We are not a consumer reporting agency (CRA) as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.

You may NOT use information from this website to make any decision regarding:

Employment — hiring, promotion, reassignment, or retention of any employee
Credit — extending, denying, or modifying credit terms or insurance
Housing — tenant screening, rental decisions, or lease approvals
Education — admission, scholarship, or financial aid decisions
Government benefits — eligibility for any license or benefit
Any other purpose listed in 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(a)

What you CAN use it for

The information on Open Public Records is provided strictly for:

Journalism and reporting on government accountability and transparency
Academic research into public records access and law enforcement transparency
General public-record review — looking up cases, court filings, or public-agency activity
Personal information — checking how your own jurisdiction handles records requests
Civic engagement — understanding how your local government performs on transparency

If you need an FCRA-compliant report

Use a licensed background-screening service. If you are an employer, landlord, lender, insurer, or any party making a decision covered by the FCRA, you must use a properly accredited Consumer Reporting Agency that complies with FCRA verification, dispute, and adverse-action requirements.

Our affiliate, Search Systems, is a separate FCRA-compliant background screening operation. Search Systems is a founding member of the Professional Background Screening Association (formerly NAPBS) and is regulated under the FCRA.

Visit searchsystems.net if you need a permissible-purpose, FCRA-compliant report.

Accuracy & corrections

Public records can be incomplete, outdated, or contain errors at their source. We aggregate what the government publishes — we cannot guarantee the underlying data is current or accurate.

If you find an error, contact the originating agency to correct the official record. If you believe an Open Public Records page is misattributing data to you specifically, see our Privacy & Removal Policy.

Questions or concerns

Questions about FCRA compliance, data sourcing, or removal requests: contact us.

This notice is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. For legal questions about the FCRA, consult an attorney.