Alaska business owners or employers who use the state's online court records system to check out prospective employees may not be able to see as much information if a pre-filed senate bill passes in the upcoming legislative session.
Senate Bill 108, sponsored by republican Senator Fred Dyson of Eagle River, would make it easier for people to clear their public records.
Dyson said the purpose of the bill is to protect residents who are found innocent in court.
"What we're wanting to do is make sure that people who are arrested inappropriately or the case was dismissed or they were tried and acquitted that those records are no longer available on court view," Dyson said.
Dyson also says it's a way to make sure people aren't haunted by old cases that were dismissed.
"We're just trying to protect the privacy of individuals," Dyson said. "This has been (had) negative impact on quite a few people because a potential employer or reference on things like foster parents or adoptive parents or whatever people go looking for the record and say "hey this person got arrested."
Joshua Decker, the interim executive director for The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, says it's exactly that type of scenario that makes the group support Dyson's bill.
"When you apply for a job or when you apply for housing, and your employer the landlord says "have you been prosecuted" and you say "yes but the case was thrown out, I was acquitted," the landlord, the employer don't hear anything after the yes," Decker said.
Senator Hollis French says he is hesitant about limiting the general public's access to view online court records.
"There should be a way for a person to clear his or her name," French said. "On the other hand often times as a prosecutor, I know that cases go to trial, there's very strong evidence but for the lack of a victim or for some other technicality you can't get a conviction."
Dyson says police would still have access to all information pertaining to dismissed court cases if the bill passed.
House Representative Pete Higgins of Fairbanks also pre-filed a bill on Friday, House Bill 235, limiting public access to view complaints filed to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
If passed, HB 235 would only include complaints that were found to have merit.
Representative Higgins was unavailable for comment on Monday.