Starting next month, the public will have easy access to information previously available only to Allegheny County law enforcement officials -- an online list of all arrests in the county.

Beginning Aug. 1, the district attorney's office will post a blotter of arrests on its Web site, da.allegheny.pa.us.

"This is the information age, and we want you to know who's being brought into the criminal justice system," District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said at a news conference at the Bethel Park Municipal Building yesterday.

At Zappala's side was county Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, who started working with the district attorney's office last year after finding limitations in Megan's Law, which mandates that the state create a registry of violent sexual offenders.

"There were only 13 names statewide," Gastgeb said. "The law wasn't working."

At present, Pennsylvania residents can request information about registered sex offenders in their communities through the state police Web site.

The district attorney's Web site will go much further.

"If anyone is arrested for anything in Allegheny County," Gastgeb said, "you'll be able to see it on the Internet."

Zappala's office already has an online network for law enforcement officials, known as DATA, that lists daily arrests and includes a suspect's name, age and race.

Zappala said that once the Web site goes public, it will provide additional information, including a suspect's home address. It will also have a link to a list of crime codes, explaining the reasons for each arrest.

The information will remain online for three days, Zappala said.

The office of the county clerk of courts is working on a similar system for its Web site that will compile information on cases that have passed through the justice system, according to Clerk of Courts George Matta, who was also at yesterday's news conference.

That system will not be ready for at least nine months, Matta said.

Zappala's announcement was sharply criticized by Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Pittsburgh chapter.

"It's likely to cause a great deal of harm to innocent people, and it will not promote public safety," Walczak said of the Web site. "I hope they reconsider."

He said that the best way to deal with violent offenders is to detain them, not list their information on the Internet. Those accused of lesser offenses, like drunken driving, could lose their jobs or face other difficulties in their communities.

Walczak said the county could face legal action if a suspect's name is posted and he or she is later found innocent.

Zappala deflected that argument, saying his office had determined that police blotters are public record under state and federal Right to Know laws. Many newspapers already publish police blotters, he said.

The district attorney's Web site will include a warning, reminding viewers that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty,

"This is a way of making residents aware," Gastgeb said. "More information is better than less information."