Public Records Law Links

Here’s a listing of links to different local, state and federal Web sites to help you background businesses, people and government. But first, be sure to read about Nebraska’s open records and meetings acts.

Lancaster County

Lancaster County Assessor’s Office — This is where you go to search about property information. Always a good idea to check and see what land people and organization’s own when you’re backgrounding someone.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s crime blotter — Each incident the University Police responds to is noted here.

Lancaster County Criminal Court Case Search — Trying to find if someone’s been convicted of a crime in the past? Check out this Web site. It also shows if there are pending crimes against someone.

Nebraska

Nebraska’s Sex Offender Registry — Searchable database of sex offenders in Nebraska.

Nebraska’s District Court Contacts — Information on whom to contact in each district court.

Nebraska County Court Contacts — Information on whom to contact in each county court.

State prison population search — Searchable database of people who’ve gone to state prison in Nebraska, past and present. One great feature is the “Download All” option below the Submit button, which gives you a text file that lists every inmate. Great for CAR work, and something I wish more state Web sites would offer.

Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission — One of my favorite governmental offices. This is where people file information when they’re running for public office. You can search for individuals and campaigns online, and it will include information about who donated money to which campaigns, what campaigns spent money on, etc. If you go to the physical office at the Capitol building, you can get even more information about the finances of certain public officials.

Nebraska teacher discipline search — Search through records and see if teachers have been disciplined, and for what.

Nebraska Budget Database search — Budgets of all Nebraska government subdivisions, as provided by State Auditor Mike Foley.

Nebraska’s state auditor’s audits — Audits done by State Auditor Mike Foley

State employee phone directory — The name says what it does. It usually lists direct line, e-mail address, etc. You can even do a reverse search on an employee’s phone number. Pretty nifty.

Corporations lookup — Searchable database to find out who the principals are in companies that filed in Nebraska. Very nifty if you’re trying to find out who owns what business on deadline.

Other search tools

Who is John Doe — An awesome listing of other Web sites to use to background people.

Google blog search — You can search through blogs for subjects, people, etc. Sometimes a good way to find potential sources, and to see what people are saying about different subjects.

Want to know information about airplanes? There are two Web sites that work well together. The first is Landings.com, which can find out who owns an airplane — This links to their searchable databases. Then, after you find out who owns an aircraft or what aircraft someone owns, then you go to Flightaware.com and you can track it. Totally awesome. This is the tool reporters have used in the past to track coach searches for universities.

An important Web site that offers valuable information about investigative reporting is ire.org, the online home of the Investigative Reporters and Editors. If you’re a student, it’s $25 a year to become a member. If it wasn’t for IRE, I wouldn’t know anything about computer-assisted reporting, let alone the role that watchdog reporting has in a functioning democracy.