The Pima County Sheriff's Department has made it easier for people to get incident and accident reports from their home computers.
Now anyone with a case number can log on to the Sheriff's Department's website and pay $5 for an electronic version of the report, said Frank Gonzales, manager of the agency's records department.
Half of the charge goes to PoliceReports.us, a contractor that hosts the reports online because the Sheriff's Department software can't, Gonzales said. The other $2.50 goes to the department's general fund.
When people request a report in person, they also pay $5, Gonzales said, all of which goes to the Sheriff's Department's general fund when the request is made at its offices.
Most reports with basic information that people need for insurance claims or court purposes can be downloaded using this system, but requests on homicides or arrests still must be submitted and processed in person, said Deputy Jason Ogan, a department spokesman.
The records department received 11,000 requests for records in October from the public, state Child Protective Services, media outlets and other law-enforcement agencies, Gonzales said.
"So this system is going to make it easier for all those requests to come in without people having to do it in person," he said.
The records clerks redact and scan records as they are requested, and then send them to PoliceReports.us because the department doesn't have an online database, Gonzales said. A person requesting records must provide an e-mail address where the report will be sent later.
The Oro Valley Police Department also contracts with PoliceReports.us and has records available for request online for the same fee.
The Tucson police records department scans reports as they come in, so they are available instantly on the Tucson Police Department website at no cost, Sgt. Matt Ronstadt said.
People also can go directly to PoliceReports.us to ask for records from the Sheriff's Department or the Oro Valley police.