Police reports and Drugs

[MFMRLL]

A friend told me that my ex was arrested for drug possession and use about two months ago, while had visitation of the kids.  It was supposedly kept quiet so that I would not find out anything.  I do not know if this actually happened, but have a couple of related questions about the situation:

Is is possible for me to obtain copies of the police reports?  And how?

Is there any way to force my ex to undergo a drug test (i.e. if my ex actually was arrested for this)?

[livealittle]

a lot of police reports are public record. You may also want to check back issues of the "police blotter" section of the local newspaper

[TC]

First, what kind of drugs...if it is the hard stuff (Coke, Crack, Heroin, Meth, etc) then by all means pursue.  If we are talking pot...you aren't going to get very far by pursuing this...Pot posession and use in most states is now a misdemeanor. 

I don't know that you have a right to the actual police report since you are not an involved party. 

Livi's suggestion that you check the local papers and the local police blog to see if you can validate the arrest is a good idea....I would think either of these would also state what she was in posession of.

As for forcing the ex to undergo a drug test...not without going to court and getting a court order.  Even then, you are going to have to PROVE that she was using the hard stuff and putting your child in danger by doing so before the court will go this route.  You definately do not have enough now to get the court to order drug testing unless there is documented proof of previous convictions and even then you are going to have to prove that she was infact arrested again for use/posession.

TC

[Wolfy]

In Minnesota most police reports are available if the suspect is not pending charges and when the investigation is completed. You will probably have to pay a fee. And you will need to go to the deptartment that had jurisdiction over that case so you will need to know what city it ocurred in, if not in a city, what county.

[CollegeDad]

You can ask the police station for the police report but you may not get it.  In Alabama, they don't have to give you squat.  You'll need to know the approximate date it was filed.  

Now if you have a case pending against your ex then you can go down to the court house and for all of 12 dollars fill out a subpoena and have a third party go down to the police department and serve it on them.  Then they'll be obligated under penalty of contempt of court to hand it over to you.  If you don't have a case pending, you could start one.  But, I don't know if what you'll find out is worth filing a modification to your decree.  It will cost you a filing fee and then you can't just withdraw your motion if you don't like what you find out.  Your ex can decide to use your filing to modify the decree against you if you aren't careful.  But you can get that police report if you want it bad enough.  

[m_t]

Additionally, the report alone won't do squat for you in court - you would need to subpoena the officer(s) to appear. Otherwise, all you've got is hearsay. And actually, you won't get far unless she was actually convicted and your kid(s) were with her.

[NoLongerLost]

I know that here and in TN you can go to the local PD website and pull up inmate history, when admitted and released, the charge, etc. It doesn't tell court results, but it's a start. Typically court dockets are public information so you can probably find out if there is a hearing or trial. How horrible to have a parent arrested with kids around. Bummer.