Even if someone is acquitted of a DUI they will still have a publicly available DUI arrest record in Atlanta, unless they do something about it. For this reason, it’s up to those arrested to be proactive and hire an experienced DUI attorney who can attack that publicly available knowledge and give them the best shot to eliminate it from the public domain and protect their reputation. For information about the first steps you can take, call and schedule a consultation today.
Certain arrest records in Atlanta are available to the public. Today, a great deal of information is on the internet—arrest records and records of criminal cases are no different. Booking photos, also known as mugshots, are one of the most common items that are easily publicly available over the internet.
Specific criminal records about a case are also commonly available over the internet. A person’s official criminal history however, is not publicly available. This is the record that is kept by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC). A criminal history is something that you have to have authorization to access unless you are a law enforcement official, such as a prosecutor, judge, or police officer.
Individuals may authorize their employer or potential employers to access their official history. But certain criminal history is available regardless. Felony criminal history is available publicly on the internet through GCIC’s own database, but misdemeanor convictions like DUIs are not publicly available through this official database.
In today’s world mugshots are widely available on the internet. Sheriff’s departments also maintain records at jails and other places where you can access mugshots, but the most common way to access mugshots today is through publicly available databases, like the Fulton County Sheriff’s website, Gwinnett County Sheriff’s website, or the DeKalb Sheriff’s website. These sites provide information about booking photos and the people that have been booked into those jails when they’ve been charged with crimes.
One of the chief consequences of a criminal history that most people are concerned with, is the way it can impair job prospects and affect current employment. A DUI arrest record in Atlanta, or any criminal record, can change an employer’s perception of a current or potential employee.
Under the law here in Georgia, it is mandatory that if an adverse employment decision is made because of an arrest or criminal history, an employer must notify the employee or prospective employee of the reason. Because of the potential consequences of a public DUI arrest record in Atlanta, an Atlanta DUI lawyer will try to work to keep things off the record or restrict the record if possible using Georgia law.
Our experienced team of attorneys could aggressively pursue the sealing of public records through court orders and through communications to third parties, such as internet sites like mugshots.com, that put up publicly available criminal information, including mugshots and criminal convictions, for everyone to see. Reach out right away to protect yourself and your future reputation.
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