Free arrest record checks are your right to lookup a person's criminal past that led him to have an arrest record. Free arrest record checks are one of the most popular public records that people access. This is because any sort of arrest entails entry to the arrest history against the person's name regardless of what the outcome of such arrest was. Thus searching police records will provide information about any types of arrests made against any sort of offense that might have been dropped, dismissed, reduced or acquitted with fine, warnings, community work or any other kinds of punitive actions without detention. This is equally applicable to the military personnel also.

Free public arrest records are conducted by different people for different reasons. Generally it is conducted to screen for employment, support legal proceeding, background checks, police work and to investigate neighbors, new colleagues, nannies and tenants. Important feature of the statute governing the use of public arrest records are hard and protect the rights of an individual, hence, employers are not allowed to ask the job applicant directly about his arrest history.

You can access public records by going to a search engine like Google and typing in the person's name, city, state and the type of records you are looking for. You will then be given a list of links that you can follow and find public record websites. These websites will then give you an option to search their database or to continue following other links and resources.