Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: A cop ran my name without legal/lawful reason...

PC 146. Every public officer, or person pretending to be a public officer, who, under the pretense or color of any process or other legal authority, does any of the following, without a regular process or other lawful authority, is guilty of a misdemeanor:

(a) Arrests any person or detains that person against his or her will.

(b) Seizes or levies upon any property.

(c) Dispossesses any one of any lands or tenements.

Further information can be found at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

Hope that is at least a good starting point. Best of luck.

Re: A cop ran my name without legal/lawful reason...

Veterinarians must report you to the local dog licensing agency. Maybe this is what happened.

Re: A cop ran my name without legal/lawful reason...

I am not aware of any law that forbids police to check a person's criminal history -- including information that is not available to the public -- provided that they do so in the context of their jobs (i.e., not to satisfy their personal interests or as a favor to a friend).

Because court files are part of the public record, even civilians can find out about them. Arrest records, however, are not supposed to be freely available.

That anyone has a right to see court files, however, does not mean they also have a right to access whatever database might contain copies of that information. Physically inspecting court files is free, but services that have compiled the information and made it centrally available usually charge for access to their data.

It is a misdemeanor for civilians to access computer data without authorization. Penal Code section 502(c) deals with unauthorized access to computers and data in general. I don't know if there is another statute which deals with arrest records in particular.