Fire Hydrant of Freedom

Virginia:
http://www.vsp.state.va.us/cjis_chrc.htm

Maryland:
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/refserv/html/criminalrecordslist.html\

And b/c of their proximity (as you stated, it's a mobile society)
DC:
http://www.pdsdc.org/Investigations/CriminalRecordChecks.pdf

Pennsylvania:
http://www.psp.state.pa.us/patch/site/default.asp

West Virginia (only the Criminal Justice Directory though - couldn't find anything more specific)
http://www.wvdcjs.com/publications/CJDir03web.pdf

I hope this helps!

Ok, I'm definitely not an expert on any of this, so FWIW...

While there are privacy issues that go w/ both, I believe criminal history and credit info are separate matters and that different criteria are applied for how private the information is/is supposed to be.  And of course different entities/agencies maintain the info.  The credit info privacy stuff is interesting and useful information in general, but Crafty's question seems to be directed specifically to criminal history - arrest records (and I think arrest & conviction info might even be treated differently in some places as well, not too sure about that though). So maybe his question would be answered more efficiently if everyone stuck to the crim history.  Also, I noticed that only CA laws are being referred to.  It's my understanding that different states have different requirements. So, Crafty, do you have specific state(s) in mind?  

But umm, that being said... here are lots of California examples anyway.  

CA Gov. Code Sec. 6254 (California Public Records Act)
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=gov&codebody=6254&hits=20
So yes, there are plenty of limitations (and lazy me, I didn't read all of it).  But for example, if you're a serious deadbeat for child support in LA county, it seems you're fair game - unflattering pic & all:  
http://childsupport.co.la.ca.us/dlparents.htm

Public records for some CA counties:

Santa Clara County:
http://www.scselfservice.org/crim/faq.htm

Los Angeles County:
http://lacounty.info/public_records.htm

LA Sheriff Dept:
http://www.lasd.org/lasd_services/tsd-rib/rib-faq_fees.html

Sacramento County:
http://www.saccourt.com/criminal/records/records.asp

And non-CA:

US DOJ:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crs.htm

Arizona:
http://www.supreme.state.az.us/publicaccess/search.asp

North Dakota:
http://www.ag.state.nd.us/BCI/CHR/CHR.html

Washington:
http://www.wsp.wa.gov/crime/crimhist.htm

Ok, that's it.  I am not looking this up for all 50 states.  Let alone counties.  

Oh, and on a broader level, there's a concept concerning availability of criminal records referred to as "practical obscurity" from a US Sup Ct decision (but it's a little old: 489 US 749, 1989 ).  It doesn't do much as far as answering Crafty's question goes, but it's decent brain food so if people are curious, have at it, maybe in another thread though.

Linda