Oklahoma Public Criminal Records

Oklahoma Public Criminal Records

According to most public records searches, no more than 20% of Oklahoma public criminal
records and those of other states are available to the public and even less is accessible on the
Internet. A few state government statutes prevent the disclosure of certain types of Oklahoma
public criminal records. For instance, juvenile Oklahoma public criminal records are considered
confidential and are therefore not open to the public. So unless you have the proper authorization
or you are a representative of a criminal justice agency, you may not have access to Oklahoma
public criminal records which were created when the individual was still a minor. Therefore, only
adult Oklahoma public criminal records are considered truly "public."

The State of Oklahoma does not have a central repository of Oklahoma public criminal records. In
this regard, Oklahoma joins a minority list of states that do not have repositories of public records.
But while some states only rely on county databases and some city databases for their public
information system, the State of Oklahoma has the ODIS.

Oklahoma Public Criminal Records: The ODIS

The ODIS stands for Offender Data Information System. ODIS replaces the central repository of
public records which are usually kept in other states and maintained by the Department of Public
Safety. In Oklahoma, the job of keeping the people informed about criminal activities happening
within the state falls to the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center and as such, it is this
government entity that is responsible for keeping the ODIS running.

The ODIS is actually a computerized records management tool that helps improve the capture,
maintenance, and quality of Oklahoma public criminal records and other law enforcement data.
The software design was based on DNA or Distributed interNetwork Architecture, a programming
model developed by Microsoft. So basically, the ODIS is a software tool used to effectively
manage Oklahoma public criminal records.

As a computer application, the ODIS uses three tiers for its construction. The first is a database of
storage of Oklahoma public criminal records. The second is a compiled application of
components used to handle the business logic and the presentation layer which is what the user
sees once he or she accesses the Oklahoma public criminal records through ODIS. The ODIS is
a web-based application and as such, it is capable of running in any combination of centralized or
decentralized network environments.

The Benefits of ODIS

The ultimate purpose of ODIS was to make it easier for authorized people to access or enter
Oklahoma public criminal records. It "strives to meet the ever increasing records management
demands placed on the local law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma by addressing the present
and future problems of data collection, integration, sharing, and management."