Comments on: Is a Summary Offense a Crime?

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:09:59 +0000

Brett said: “Does anyone know if it will show up or not for certain?”

I have a good amount of summary offenses such as disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. No retail theft though. I was never “booked” (photographed, fingerprinted, formally charged) for any of the charges.

I’ve seen my PA state police rap sheet and I’ve seen my FBI NCIC report which was furnished to me by the DOD. There were no summary offenses on either report. You cannot “order” an NCIC report as Brian Zeiger suggests but I can tell you if a summary charge is not showing on your PA state police report, it won’t be on NCIC. In addition to federal charges, all NCIC does is query each of the 50 states for possible rap sheets on the subject.

You have to realize that violating a leash law or other lame municipal ordinance is a summary offense too. No LE agency really cares to report this stuff, at least not yet.

BUT, since summary offenses can be easily located on the UJS site, I would suggest getting them expunged. You never know where HR departments will look these days.

By: Brett

Brett — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:05:48 +0000

I committed a non-traffic summary offense 10 years ago. I need to do a NCIC background check for an overseas work visa. I ran a check on my record at epatch.state.pa.us and it came up clean. I’m wondering, however, if the Pennsylvania UJS record (which I assume will contain the offense since it is not expunged) will show up on the NCIC check.

Someone here wrote: “Obviously anything and everything can now be found on the UJS site but that is not an official criminal record…If you’re not booked for a crime, I highly doubt it shows up on NCIC.”

Does anyone know if it will show up or not for certain?

Thank you!

By: Brian Zeiger

Brian Zeiger — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:07:07 +0000

@adan, same answer as my previous. i would order a copy of your NCIC from the PA state police and read it.

By: Adan

Adan — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:21:44 +0000

What about summary offenses issued by the Game and Wildlife commission? Would they show up on a criminal record check?

By: Brian Zeiger

Brian Zeiger — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:54:26 +0000

@AMC: you can order a copy of your NCIC from the PA state police for a very cheap price. It will show you exactly what is reported. You can also use intellius, though I am in no way adverting, endorsing, etc., but sometimes, I use intellius to compare it to what I get from the PA state police.

If you want me to guess, I would say, yes it is reported. Depending on your age, we can most likely get it expunged regardless of how it is reported.

By: AMC

AMC — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:32:54 +0000

Hello M:

Do you know if a juvenile summary offense for retail theft is reported to the NCIC? I am currently about to take my series 6 and 63 license and must have a clean background. I plead guilty to retail theft when I was 16. Do you know if this will affect me trying to obtain my licenses?

By: Brian Zeiger

Brian Zeiger — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:56:22 +0000

I often wonder if the issue is just about the internet catching up to the reporting. I would still recommend getting rid of all summaries. Perception is reality.

By: m

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:02:08 +0000

In my experience, summary offenses often do NOT appear on Pennsylvania background checks. With a few exceptions (summary retail theft being a main one), summary offenses issued as non-traffic citations rarely appear on PA RAP Sheets. However, the NT summary docket will show up on the UJS Portal.

On the other hand, if the case is originally charged as a court case (misdemeanors or felony), and later reduced to a summary case, the summary conviction is likely to appear on the background check. This is especially true if the summary plea was arranged at the Court of Common Pleas.

Bottom line: Find out what is on your official criminal history. You can order your complete PA criminal history via form SP4-164 (epatch.state.pa.us/help/sp4164.doc).
Choose “Individual Access and Review” as the reason for the request.

If a summary conviction does appear, and five arrest free years have elapsed since the date of conviction, contact a lawyer about expungement. The applicable expungement statute is 18 Pa. C.S. 9122(b).

It should be noted that it may be improper for employers or licensing agencies to deny applicants on the basis of summary offense convictions. See 18 Pa. C.S. 9124 and 9125.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:30:12 +0000

I would like to know who comes up with the laws in Pennsylvania. Honestly they are nothing like the laws in the rest of the country. What happened to freedom of speech? Well I will tell you if you live in certain counties in PA, you have no right to freedom of speech. The people in this wonderful town that we moved to make there own laws up as they go. Who cares what the rest of the United States has for laws when you live in certain counties. They charge a 13 year old with disorderly conduct, for swearing at an adult who swore at him first. However you can tamper with mail here and have no problems with the law. You can even hand out bibles at the public schools. Makes sense right? How about when you go to the volunteer fire station to face summary offense charges. The states witness get’s up on the stand and lie’s completely. But because the law judge knows the mother and dated the cousin and married into the uncles family of the witness that is lying on the stand your evidence to prove that they fabricated everything that is coming out of there mouth’s is not admissible. As a result of being wrongfully convicted in this state, someone that was convicted 19 years ago of rape, got a new trial all because the judge wanted to help out there friends. Nice! What a joke this place is!

By: Brian Zeiger

Brian Zeiger — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:51:10 +0000

A guilty for a summary offense for a for a non traffic disorderly conduct will show up on a criminal background check. After five years pass, you may be able to get it removed from your record through an expungement.

Whether that conviction is criminal or not is irrelevant because the conviction is reported on your criminal background history from the Pennsylvania State Police. If you have already been convicted of Disorderly Conduct, an example of Disorderly Conduct is irrelevant because even if you were falsely convicted, based on your question, you are outside the window of appeal. I have no idea how this can effect child custody.