Does everybody know your name?!
About five years ago our bread and butter was direct mail marketing people who were in need of a criminal defense attorney. We acquired the names of people who were arrested daily through the county and city jail dockets. We targeted DUI, shoplifting, and possession charges, as those at the time were CASH NOW cases. Back then, DUI cases went through the system faster so the attorney had a chance of being retained at least 2 weeks after the arrest.
I have seen my share of booking areas of jails. There are 82 counties in Mississippi and I am not going to break it down in cities. No exaggeration when I say I have been in over 85% of holding facilities gathering jail docket information. I wore out three vehicles to prove it. I said all that to say, there is money in acquiring public records.
The Freedom of Information Act allows the public access to these records, in our case the jail dockets of county and city jails. The Sheriff by law must keep a record of (the detained) who enter in and out of their facility. Disclosure of this information is mandated by law.
We handled prospective client-relations as part of our service. Translation: We answered the phone and screened who could pay for private legal help and who could not. If you hear the phrase, Do they qualify? Understand it means (Can you pay the fee?).
The calls received after each mailing presented one or two very very upset family members who wanted to know how did you get confidential information. If you didn’t have patience, you didn’t answer the phone. When marketed correctly and effectively we generated 50 prospective calls weekly. I carried and answered a cell phone (24/7 call center) for over three years fielding prospective calls. I went to sleep with a blue tooth around my ear. Please understand why I do not answer or use phones currently.
Attorneys were not the only ones benefiting from public information. Some jails generated revenue for themselves also by permitting the jail docket to be printed ONLY. You must purchase the free information they printed for you. You could not have access to the book itself and some jails were proud of their list charging up to $50 for one list or $5 a page. In a small town, there may have been 3 people arrested on a $5 page. There is gold in public information.
If you think your information is private or confidential, think again. Visit www.zabasearch.com search your name and a friends name and see how public your personal information is.
This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World . . .
I am LISA LIFE . . . 🙂
Lisa Henry Harper 