Topeka ? Kansas criminal history records are now available to the general public on the Internet.

The records can be retrieved at www.accesskansas.org/kbi/criminalhistory.

There is a cost to access the records — $17.50 per record check. Agencies that provide direct care to the children, elderly and the disabled would get a discount of $12.50 per record.

“Hopefully it will be a great benefit to a number of Kansans,” Kyle Smith, spokesman for the KBI, said today as law enforcement officials unveiled the new service.

Smith said he expected employers to access the records for criminal background checks of employees or job applicants, but also everyday Kansans, wanting to check, for instance, on their babysitter.

The records are public documents, but the KBI website has numerous warnings about penalties for misusing the records.

Only convictions, and charges within the past year that haven’t been resolved will be available through the searches.

The KBI has more than 700,000 records in its central repository database from maintaining criminal histories since 1939.

Smith said about half of those records are now online as the KBI works to get its total collection online. The remaining ones can be accessed through written requests, a process that takes about two weeks to three weeks.

David Sim, administrator of the KBI Records Section, said demand for records is increasing, and people want them faster.

“They want that information and they want it now,” Sim said.

Kansas becomes the 10th state to have its criminal records online, officials said.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Journal-World.