What is a Criminal History Record?
When an adult is arrested for a “reportable” crime, the individual is fingerprinted by the arresting law enforcement agency. Fingerprints are used to establish the identity of an individual when the individual gave a false name at the time of arrest. Even if an individual is arrested on two separate occasions and uses different names each time, the fingerprints will link the individual to both arrests.
The arrest fingerprint card is the beginning of the criminal history record. It includes information about the arrest charge and demographic information of the person who was arrested.