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Your guide to online records

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Here is a guide to some of the records available to the public. This guide is a compilation of three years of You Oughta Know, a weekly column in The Eagle that highlights such records. Open records help citizens keep government in check and help them better understand how government affects their lives.

You Oughta Know appears each Monday and is written by reporter Deb Gruver. For recent columns, go to www.kansas.com/oughta.

Most -- but not all -- of the following records are free.

Abortion

• Abortion information reported to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, including how many are performed: http://www.kdheks.gov/hci/annsumm.html

Accidents

• Accident reports from the Wichita Police Department: https://services.wichita.gov/accidentreports/default.aspx

• Details about Kansas traffic fatalities by year: http://ksdot.org/burTrafficSaf/fatalities/fatalitydetail09.asp

• The Wichita Police Department's list of top 500 accident locations.

ADA

• Sedgwick County's self-evaluation and transition plan for complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act: http://sedgwickcounty.org/personnel/ada_plan.asp

Animals

• Annual dog statistics prepared by Wichita's Animal Services Department, including information about number of complaints, impounds, euthanizations and animals deemed dangerous: http://wichita.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B2DD4B03-6020-4C5A-9E44-2006560917EC/0/ESAnimalServicesCouncilReport2008AnnualDogStatsYearEndTotals.pdf

• Statistics about animals euthanized, reclaimed and adopted at the city of Wichita's animal shelter: http://wichita.gov/CityOffices/Environmental/AnimalShelter/statistics.htm

Bankruptcies

• Bankruptcy statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/bnkrpctystats/bankruptcystats.htm

Campaign finance

• Individual contributors to federal campaigns: http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/disclosure_data_search.shtml

Charities

• Information about charities registered with the Kansas Secretary of State: www.kscharitycheck.org

Congress

• Record of proceedings in the U.S. House and Senate from the Congressional Record: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r111query.html

Corporations

• Corporation records kept by the Kansas Secretary of State: http://www.kssos.org/business/business_entity.html

Child deaths

• Information about child deaths in Kansas, including those caused by homicide, motor vehicle accidents and home accidents: http://www.childdeathreview.org/statisticsKS.htm

Credit counseling

• A list of registered credit service groups approved to do debt-management counseling with Kansas consumers: http://osbckansas.org/DOCML/docmlcsosearch.html

Crime

• Criminal suspects whomthe Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office has pictures of but hasn't named: http://www.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriff/felon/index.html

• Annual crime statistics for your area (you will need to choose which bureau you're in): http://wichita.gov/CityOffices/Police/FieldServices

• Domestic violence and rape statistics for Kansas: http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/stats/stats_dvrape.shtml

• Uniform crime reports from the FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

• Statistics on methamphetamine lab seizures: http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/de/stats_meth.shtml

• Criminal record checks from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation: http://www.kansas.gov/kbi/criminalhistory/

• Information about registered sex, violent and drug offenders in Kansas: http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/ro.shtml

Criminal justice

• Statistics about the arrests of juveniles statewide: http://www.kansas.gov/jja/documents/Data_juvenilearrestData.pdf

• Information about escapees from Kansas Department of Corrections:

http://www.dc.state.ks.us/escapees

• Active warrants for Sedgwick County residents held by the Sheriff's Office: https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/SheriffWarrants/WarrantNameSearchForm.aspx

• List of current inmates in the Sedgwick County Jail: https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateSearch.aspx

• Information on inmates at Kansas Department of Corrections facilities, including conviction and disciplinary information, where they are located and their current status: http://www.dc.state.ks.us/kasper

• Information on the location of federal prisoners: http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp

Disasters

• A list of federal disaster declarations by year and state: http://www.fema.gov/news/disaster_totals_annual.fema

• Flood information for the area where you live from the National Flood Insurance Program: http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/

• Current national and state threat levels: http://www.accesskansas.org /kdem

• Storm loss statistics kept by the Kansas Insurance Department: http://ksinsurance.org/storms/index.php

Education

• The finances, by county, of public elementary and secondary school systems with enrollments of 10,000 or more: http://ftp2.census.gov/govs/school/06f33pub.pdf

• Adequate Yearly Progress reports for Kansas schools: http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=403

• Building report cards for Kansas schools regulated by the Kansas State Department of Education, which will help you compare schools: http://online.ksde.org/rcard/

Elections

• Election statistics and information kept by the Kansas Secretary of State's Office, including schedules and voter turnout and registration information: http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections_statistics.html

• Election results for Sedgwick County: http://sedgwickcounty.org/elections/election_results.htm

Environment

• Information about environmental factors in your community and neighborhood, such as companies that produce air emissions or release toxic chemicals: http://www.epa.gov/enviro

• Addresses where the city of Wichita has detected lead in drinking water: http://wichita.gov/CityOffices/WaterAndSewer/Lead.htm

• Air quality ratings for the city of Wichita: http://wichita.gov/airquality/

Fires and fire-related deaths

• Statistics on fires as well as civilian and firefighter injuries and deaths across the state: http://accesskansas.com/firemarshal/Resources/stats.htm

Guns

• Statistics onconcealed carry licenses in Kansas, including those denied, suspended or revoked: http://www.ksag.org/files/shared/CC.AnnualReport.08.pdf

Health care

• Information on quality at hospitals, including mortality for certain heart conditions and steps taken to improve surgical care: http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

• Information kept by Medicare about nursing homes, including health and fire safety deficiencies:

http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/SearchCriteriaNEW.asp?version=default&browser=Firefox%7C2%7CWinXP&language=English&defaultstatus=0&pagelist=Home&CookiesEnabledStatus=True

• The Federal Drug Administration's safety alerts for drugs, biologics (biological products such as vaccines and blood), devices and dietary supplements: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety.htm

Insurance

• Complaints against insurance companies licensed to do business in Kansas: http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/docs/2007ComplaintRatioOnline.pdf

Law enforcement

• Statistics about law enforcement personnel across the state, including the number in each county broken down by gender: http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/stats/stats_law.shtml

Legislative

• Sedgwick County's legislative platform:http://www.sedgwickcounty.org/communications/2009_legislative_platform.htm

• The calendars for the Kansas House and Senate: http://www.kslegislature.org/calendars/2009/

• Statements of substantial interests lawmakers or their family members have in businesses: http://www.kssos.org/elections/ssi_online.asp

• E-mail alerts to performance audits conducted by the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit: www.kslegislature.org/postaudit/

• Information about bills before the Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-legisportal/index.do

Missing children

• The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's list of missing children: http://www.missingkids.com

Mortgages

• The FBI's mortgage fraud report: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/fraud/mortgage_fraud07.htm

• Data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which includes information on mortgages received and denied by various racial groups: http://www.ffiec.gov/hmda/online_rpts.htm

Professional license checks

• License information for engineers, architects, land surveyors, landscape architects and geologists kept by the Kansas State Board of Technical Professions, which oversees the licensing and discipline for such professionals: http://www.accesskansas.org/roster-search/index.html

• License information for funeral homes from the Kansas Board of Mortuary Arts: http://www.kansas.gov/ksbma/listings.html

• Teacher certification and license records from the Kansas Department of Education: https://online.ksde.org/teal/cert_search.aspx

• License information kept by the Kansas Board of Veterinary Examiners: http://www.kansas.gov/veterinary/listing.html

• License and disciplinary information for Kansas real estate agents kept by the Kansas Real Estate Commission: https://www.accesskansas.org/ssrv-krec-verification/index.do or http://www.kansas.gov/krec/disciplinary.html

• License information for professionals regulated by the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board: http://www.ksbsrb.org/verification.html

• License information kept by the Kansas Dental Board: http://www.accesskansas.org/kdb/verification.html

• License and disciplinary information kept by the Kansas Board of Accountancy: http://www.ksboa.org/individuals.htm or http://www.ksboa.org/discipline.htm

• License and disciplinary information kept by the Kansas Board of Pharmacy: https://www.accesskansas.org/pharmacy_verification/index.html or http://www.kansas.gov/pharmacy/Discipline.htm

• License information for mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders, finance companies and payday lenders by the Office of the State Bank Commissioner: http://www.osbckansas.org/DOCML/DOCMLBrokerLenderSearch/docmlapprovedlistdisclaimer.html

• License and disciplinary information kept by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts: http://www.docboard.org/ks/df/kssearch.htm or http://www.ksbha.org/boardactionsA.html

• Disciplinary actions taken by the Kansas Real Estate Appraisal Board: http://www.kansas.gov/kreab/pdf/kansas_appraisers/complaints.pdf

• License information kept by the Kansas Insurance Department: http://ksinsurance.org/consumers/companysearch.htm

Racial profiling

• Racial profiling data from the Kansas Attorney General's Office, including the number of complaints filed against law enforcement agencies across Kansas: http://www.ksag.org/files/shared/profiling.08.pdf

Real estate

• Sedgwick County property appraisals and property sales information: https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/taxwebapp/disclaimerform.aspx

Records retention schedule

• The retention schedule for records kept by Kansas state agencies and county governments:

http://www.kshs.org/government/records/stategovt/stateretentionschedules.htm

Restaurant inspections

• A searchable database of restaurant inspections by the state: http://www.ksfoodsafety.org/disclaimer.htm

Safety recalls

• The list of product recalls by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html

Securities

• Administrative and criminal proceedings by the Kansas Securities Commissioner's Office: http://www.securities.state.ks.us/proceed_main.html

Sedgwick County

• The budget for Sedgwick County: http://sedgwickcounty.org/finance/Budget/2009_Budget/adopted/index.html

• Information about scheduled tax foreclosure auctions by Sedgwick County due to delinquent real estate taxes: http://sedgwickcounty.org/sheriff/sales.asp

Taxes

• County-by-county information about taxable values, value per capita, property taxes, tax per capita, mill levies, population and how the county spends its money: http://www.ksrevenue.org /pvdstatistics.htm

• People or businesses who owe delinquent property taxes to Sedgwick County: http://sedgwickcounty.org/Treasurer/DelinquentTax/Index.html

Weather

• Warnings issued by the National Weather Service:http://nws.noaa.gov/view/nationalwarnings.php?map=on

Wichita Mid-Continent Airport

• Passenger statistics, by month and by airline, at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport: http://flywichita.com/Business/Statistics.htm

Work force

• Layoff statistics for the United States: http://www.bls.gov/MLS/

Workplace safety

• Inspection records by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor: http://osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html

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