Ky Criminal Background Checks - New Way To Access

AOC Announces Changes

The Administrative Office of the Courts announced changes to its service that provides criminal background reports.

The following changes will be effective Jan. 19, 2010:
- There will be a standard fee of $15 for all criminal background reports;
- A new automated program, AOCFastCheck, will allow the public to request and receive reports online;
- There will be only three ways to request records  online, by drive-thru service in Frankfort and by mail.

The increase from $10 to $15 will be the first fee increase the AOC has implemented since 2003. At $15, the fee is still less than the amount charged by several other states for background reports.

The AOC Records Unit processes approximately 950,000 criminal record reports each year. The reports are produced from data stored in CourtNet, the statewide database used by the Kentucky Court of Justice to collect information from the court case management system in each county. About 60 percent of those reports are provided free to schools and government agencies. Reports to schools and government agencies will not be affected by the fee increase and will continue to be provided free of charge.

In an effort to more quickly fill requests for criminal record reports, the AOC will make AOCFastCheck, a new automated online system, available to anyone who wants to become a registered user. This new service begins Jan. 19.

AOCFastCheck represents a huge technological leap in our ability to meet the demand for criminal record reports, said Jason Cloyd, manager of the AOC Division of Records and Statistics. The limitations of our manual system have made it challenging to respond to the growing volume of record requests in a timely way.

The AOC first offered AOCFastCheck to Kentucky schools in August 2009 as a way to quickly turn around the thousands of criminal record reports requested annually for school personnel and volunteers. Cloyd said that the test run of AOCFastCheck proved to be a great success and he looks forward to providing this online option to the public.

The AOC hosts AOCFastCheck on a secure server. To establish a free account beginning Jan. 19, individuals can visit www.courts.ky.gov and click on Obtain a Criminal Background Report under Helpful Links. Once users have an account, they can submit a request at any time and be notified by e-mail when the criminal record report is available. They log onto the same account to submit requests, track the progress of requests and receive reports. AOCFastCheck users pay online per request using certain credit and debit cards or an electronic check.

For more information, call the AOC Records Unit at 800-928-6381 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.