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Ohio City
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Tremont
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Street Level
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Development News
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Series
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First Suburbs: A Closer Look
FreshFaces
Global Cleveland
Grassroots Success
May Dugan
Microlending Success
Ohio Civics Essential
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On The Ground: Fairfax
On The Ground: La Villa Hispana
On The Ground: Old Brooklyn
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The search for public records: Digging around in the archives
Gennifer Harding-Gosnell
|
Thursday, July 15, 2021
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The City of Cleveland’s
Public Records Center
is the hub to get access to city government records, including police reports, orders from the mayor’s office, employee salaries, building permits, and crime stats. To get access, all you need to do is complete a short account sign-up. Click here for some
video instructions
.
Once signed in, you can request documents for specific items of interest to you and use the Public Records Archive and Trending Topics sections to look up documents others have already requested. To learn more about requesting public records,
take a free text course
.
The Public Records archives aren’t infallible; some search items may not show results when you expect you should find something. But you also might stumble on interesting information you hadn’t thought would exist just by browsing the already-released records. Check out our
Twitter thread where we dug into the archives
.
Knowing where to look and what to look for is key to successfully researching public records. Fruitful records searches can lead to everything from getting media and public exposure for
important issues
to
accountability for major disasters
.
So what makes you curious? Here’s some good searches of information that already exists in the Public Records Archive based on our own interests:
Police Monitor
- Are you passionate about police reform and accountability? All information released from the Cleveland Division of Police about
incidents involving its officers
can be found here.
Neighborhood Watch
- Want to know if your neighborhood has experienced a shift in criminal activity? Look for previously-released
data
by searching the Archives for your neighborhood.
Citizen Journalist
- Do you want to be a citizen blogger? A government watchdog? Want to know where your tax dollars are going? Budgets, grants, contracts, and other
finance records
are public information.
Political/Social Advocate
- Are you supporting a cause for social justice? The Public Records Archive shows statistics others have already asked to see on government policies that affect specific populations in Cleveland, like
infant mortality rates
and the money spent to support pre-natal social programs, and
hate crimes against Asian-Americans
since the beginning of the pandemic.
Concerned Citizen
- Your neighbor’s car was just stolen and you’re concerned about the safety of your own property. A family member was assaulted and you need details. All reports of
cases between individuals
are released here, and the only information you must have is a date and location.
True-Crime Solver
- If you’re interested in police forensics, or using the Internet to help solve crimes, a search in the archives for crime-investigation records can yield fascinating
results
.
To learn more about how to access public records, sign up for the
free course
cooperation with the
Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative
and
Cleveland Documenters
.
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