Does anyone have any knowledge of how to obtain a police incident report or police report if you are not involved in the incident?  I have been told that unless I am the victim, I am out of luck.  Can I have these reports subpoenaed to show a pattern of behavior that affects a child in a family law matter?

Thanks!

Sandra Alexander

except for certain situations (e.g. minors, etc.) police arrests and similar documents are public records and are subject to right-to-know laws.

You may need to engage an attorney however to enforce those rights.

You could speak to someone in your State's Secretary of State Office concerning the matter.  That is the office that most often gets involved in enforcing right-to-know laws.  Perhaps a phone call from them to the agency you wish to receive the information from will clear up the matter.

Let us know how it goes.

(still not a lawyer)

Mr. Fisher is right, but in most states, unless there is an exception to the Open Records Act for ongoing criminal investigations, they are subject to subpoena returnable to the court hearing, as well.


---not a lawyer either but I did go to law school back before electricity.

I'm afraid mrfisher is mistaken.  Here in California, at least, arrest reports and investigatory notes are not available to the public.  In many instances, making such information public would jeopardize ongoing investigations and/or interfere with the ability to prosecute suspects.  It would also expose the identity of confidential informants and might reveal confidential information about surveillance practices that the police have a very legitimate interest in keeping secret.

Whether you can get the records you want will depend upon many factors.  The first of these is which state you are in, since the law on this topic probably varies quite a bit from state to state.  Your reasons for wanting the information will also matter, as will the connection between the subject matter of the reports and the reason you want to see them.  

In legal parlance, we call such decisions fact-specific.  There is no general answer to your question.  Instead, the answer will vary from one case to another depending upon the facts of each case.  You should consult directly with a lawyer about the details instead of relying on general information from the internet.

So three answers to your question so far and three different answers. What's a poor physician with no legal training to do when faced with a seemingly simple legal situation.  I was once running a large hospital service and we had a certain billing procedure.  We hired an outside expert who told us it was legal. An internal expert told us it was illegal and we had to return a great deal of money to the government for our illegal billing. We had to close the program.  Four years later (too late for the survival of my program) it was made clear that what we had been doing was legal.  "Sorry about that."

Yes, there are three different answers, but two of them came from non-lawyers.  That doesn't mean the third answer is correct, but it does mean a layperson who doesn't know the correct answer should give more credence to the attorney's (that's me) response than to the others.

Sidone is right.  In Texas, police reports are considered work product, and not available to the public as a right.  Usually a defense attorney can get with the prosecutor and have a look at the report, but that's totally within the prosecutor's discretion. As far as getting such a report for use in another case, you're probably not going to be able to get it unless the prosecutor wants to help you.

Now, the probable cause affidavit is a different matter.  It is available to the general public, as it is filed in the county, or district, clerk's offices, and is available to anyone who wants to see it. The probable cause affidavit is way less specific than the police report, but you would be able to get the name(s) of the party being charged, names of witnesses (unless they are confidential informants), names of police officers and their badge numbers, dates of the incident(s, and a barebones allegation of what is being charged--no specific details.  The probable cause affidavit is the bare minimum that a judge has to see before issuing arrests warrants, commitment orders, or bond amounts. It may or may not help you. Good luck.