Comment by dmillar
2 days ago
Many criminal records, petty or otherwise, are public record. When archived, expunged or dismissed infractions never truly become that. A traffic violation or other petty misdemeanor from 20 years ago, that has been expunged from official record, can show up on a background check because companies archive public data. So, there is a flip side to this.
Public data is incompatible with secrecy. Expunged records still appear in newspapers archives if the local reporter on the Crimes beat captured the proceedings. IMO, "expunged" means removed from Official court records - not from the public memory, including newspapers, archived websites, police blotters and prosecutors' files.
The fact that you get it out from your criminal record doesn't mean they get forgotten. Think about a paper writing about your crime. That will be public and archived forever.