I've been having a harder time than I thought rounding up some tips on tracking down police/court records for your reporting uses, but that's in large part due to the fact that methods for acquiring these differ state to state. I asked an expert, reporter Tom Zoellner, on his tips on getting your hands on this material:

Two of the easier items to track down are incident reports, which are the basic building blocks of police reporting, and the information flow within police departments. They are almost always public because of a basic philosophy in the U.S. that cops should maintain a degree of transparancy and are not the "secret police" of more tyrannical nations.

(The FBI is an interesting -- and incompetent -- exception to this rule. For my money, they'd be a lot more effective if they weren't so hoggish with their information, but that's another debate).

Anyway, An incident report is a one or two-page form document that the primary officer writes whenever he responds to a crime or a potential crime. It includes names of suspects, names of witnesses, time, address, sometimes a short narrative, all the who what where when why. If there is an arrest, that usually requires a separate "arrest report."

To get hold of an incident report, go down to the station armed with as much info as you can about the incident: name, time, and the case number if you have it. It helps to talk with the cop who responded -- he might look up that number for you, which makes life easy. Many police administrators will try to tell you they can't find the report, but that's because they haven't looked hard enough. They will also make you wait a few days and you may have to pay a $5 administration fee. They will also probably block out the names and phone numbers of witnesses, which is stupid, but that's the way they do things. If you think your suspect is in jail, go to the jail and ask to see the roster. This part should be easy; jailing people in secret is incredibly antithetical to American values.

As I said, some of the rural departments will try to tell you you can't have the report. Bullshit. Go to the city attorney with a Freedom of Information Act letter in that case. Act entitled.

In my experience, the more slipshod the police force, the more they will stonewall the release of documents. The more professional the department, the easier they let things go.

This maxim applies to many institutions.

I did find some links, too, on tracking down records. Some more details on going down to the courthouse (comfy shoes!) You can find recorsd online. To blow your mind, other kinds of records you can obtain. And illustrating the collide of old-fashioned record-fetching and the increasing use of the Internet.