By Carley Banks
There is a place in Lubbock where you can background your date, find everything your landlord owns or dig up some dirt on your neighbors.
It is legal and free—for potential stalkers and vigilantes alike. Information about civil and criminal cases, properties and marriage licenses is loaded on publicly accessible computers at the Lubbock County Courthouse.
Amber Berry, a junior journalism major from Austin, Texas, said the ability to look up files at the courthouse is important for many reasons.
“It’s good to have information about someone, especially for employers, so they will know who their potential new employees are,” Berry said.
Berry went to the courthouse on a class field trip, and found searching for people’s records at the county clerk’s office entertaining. But she doubts most Tech students know about the service or have the interest to make a trip specifically to search for public records.
“I think students would go to the courthouse to look up cases if it had to do with their major or if they are going into law,” Berry said. “I don’t think random students who are, for example, geology majors, would go to look up cases.”
Lauren Rodriguez, a junior kinesiology major from Dallas, said she has looked up arrest cases before, but has never actually been to the courthouse.
“I use mugshots.com if I want to look up someone who’s been arrested.” Rodriguez said.
Mugshots.com is a public database for searching mug shots and arrest records. The mug shots and arrest records published are neither an indication of guilt nor evidence an actual crime was committed, according to the website’s disclaimer.
Rodriguez said she will keep searching the way she has in the past.
“I wouldn’t go down to the courthouse because I wouldn’t want to waste gas when I can look up the information for free online,” she said.
Kelly Pinion, the Lubbock County clerk, said all types of people use the services to search for cases.
Pinion said the cases were filed on paper in the clerk’s office until 2005. The county has switched to computers since then, but the records are not posted online.
“My advice to students is to just come in and start searching,” Pinion said.
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