Whether you are allowed to turn yourself in or you are handcuffed and brought to jail in a squad car, the end result is the same - Your arrest will be part of the public record. Anyone who wants to know what happened to you will be able to access that information if they know how. These are some of the way that people can find out about your incident: Private Search Companies: There are sites that specialize in providing public records to the public. These include everything from marriage and divorce records to information about whether were charged with a crime and what the outcome of that charge was. Government Websites: If someone knows the state or county you were arrested in, they can check the jail or county's website for your name. Not all counties provide such sites. Some counties only keep you listed while you are in their jail. Once you are released on bond, someone searching the jail site will not see your name. Other county sites keep track of everyone who has been arrested in their jurisdiction for the past few decades. Even after you are released from jail, or let out on bond, if someone types your name into the website and you have been arrested before, your name will pop up along with details about the charge and what happened when you went to court. Jail Phone Calls: In some cases, a call made directly to the jail where you were booked will result in the information being provided. The caller simply gives your name to the jail employee, and that person will look you up in their records. If your name is found and they can verify your birth date, the caller can be told when you were arrested, whether you are still in jail, and when you are due to appear in court. In addition, if you were already sentenced, the caller might be given that information as well. Many jails decline to provide this kind of information over the telephone, not because it is too time consuming, but smaller county jails and a few larger ones still do. In-Person Research: If a person wants to know about your arrest, they can find out about it by visiting the court clerk in the county of your arrest. They can look you up in-person with the county's computer, or they can ask the court clerk to do it for them. The person looking for your record typically needs to know if your case was Federal or State in order to get accurate information. The only way to prevent your arrest from being in the public record is to have a judge seal or expunge the record. Sealing means the public cannot access it. Expunging means the record no longer exists, except in rare instances such as if is requested by Homeland Security. An attorney can advise you if your arrest record is eligible for sealing or expunging, and if so, how to get it done.