Alaska is one of the open states. The Department of Public Safety cites Alaska Statute 12.62.160 as authorizing any person to receive Alaska criminal justice information, and its Criminal Records and Identification Bureau, the central repository, sells that information by name or by fingerprints to the public, to employers and to the subject of the record.
What a requester receives depends on who they are: the subject sees everything, including sealed and non conviction information; any person sees past convictions and current offender information; an employer or licensing agency screening someone to care for children or dependent adults, an interested person in the statute's words, sees all charges and dispositions except sealed ones.
- Fees: $20 for a name based check and $35 for a fingerprint based check, Alaska information only; an extra copy ordered at the same time is $5, a report ordered later is $20 again.
- Online: the name based Criminal History Report Portal, which asks for a Social Security number and an Alaska driver license or state ID number to verify the requester.
- In person: walk in checks at most DPS office locations and many local police departments, with two forms of photo ID.
- By mail: the DPS background check forms, one for the record subject and one for a third party holding the subject's signed consent, sent to the bureau in Anchorage with a check or money order payable to the State of Alaska.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alaska's own systems: the Department of Public Safety background checks page, the State of Alaska Criminal History Report Portal, the DPS Request for Criminal Justice Information form, the DPS Request to Seal Criminal Justice Information packet, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Where Alaska keeps the record: APSIN and the R&I Bureau
The Criminal Records and Identification Bureau of the Department of Public Safety is the designated central repository for criminal history information in Alaska. Criminal justice agencies must report their events to it: arresting agencies report arrests, prosecutors report charges declined for prosecution, and courts report the dispositions of charges that were filed. The database that holds and releases it all is the Alaska Public Safety Information Network, APSIN. DPS defines criminal history record information, under AS 12.62.900(8), as past conviction information, current offender information and criminal identification information, meaning the fingerprints, photographs and descriptions that identify a person as having been arrested or prosecuted.
The bureau is careful to say that its summary information is confidential and released only as the law allows, even though the Alaska Court System runs its own public case databases. The FBI's national file, which holds criminal history from all 50 states and the federal courts, is confidential in the same way and released only as state and federal law permit.
Three reports, depending on who asks
The DPS background checks page and the request form describe three levels of report. The report available only to the subject of the record includes past conviction information, current offender information, criminal identification information, non conviction information, sealed information and, where it exists, correctional treatment information; a subject with a sealed record must check that box on the form to receive it. The report available to any person for any purpose includes past conviction information, current offender information and criminal identification information, which the form restates as current or open criminal charges and charges that resulted in conviction, excluding sealed records. The report for an interested person, defined in AS 12.62.900(18) as someone who employs, appoints or permits a person to serve with or care for children or dependent adults, includes all criminal charges and dispositions except sealed records.
DPS adds the consent rule for employment and licensing: a person must give written permission or their fingerprints to the individual or agency requesting criminal justice information for those purposes. The bureau says it provides state and national checks to individuals and employers under AS 12.62.160, 13 AAC 68 and Public Law 92-544.
Name check or fingerprint check, and what each costs
A request can be made by name or by submitting the record subject's fingerprints. DPS recommends the fingerprint based check, because a name based search may miss history that reached the repository under an alias or another name. The name based check is $20 and the fingerprint based check is $35; both return Alaska criminal justice information only. Fingerprints must be on a standard FD-258 FBI fingerprint form, and DPS rejects prints submitted in any other format, including the standard form printed at a different size or on different paper.
For name based checks by mail, results are mailed or faxed but not both unless an extra copy is bought. Extra copies cost $5 and must be ordered with the original report; a report requested later costs $20 again.
The online portal, the walk in counters and the mail
The State of Alaska Criminal History Report Portal runs the name based check online. To obtain a copy of a criminal history report under AS 12.62 there, the requester enters a Social Security number and either an Alaska driver license number or a Division of Motor Vehicles state identification number to verify identity; the portal sends a secure link by email that opens the online report form. Someone without those documents, or who does not want to enter them online, uses the in person or the mail in route. Every Alaska criminal history report costs $20 for the initial report and $5 for each additional copy.
In person, walk in checks are taken at approved locations, which DPS lists as most of its office locations and many local police departments. The requester brings two forms of photo ID, one government issued and the other showing the full legal name, and pays as the location allows, most taking cash, check or money order. By mail, the subject completes the Request for Criminal Justice Information form in full and sends it with payment to the bureau; a third party request needs the subject's signature on the consent portion of the subject information form and on the unsworn falsification statement, and an incomplete form or a missing payment is returned for correction. Questions go to DPS at 907-269-5511.
The mail in form: what it asks and where it goes
The Request for Criminal Justice Information form goes as an original to the Criminal Records and Identification Bureau, 5700 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99507, telephone (907) 269-5767, fax (907) 269-5091, with a $20 check or money order payable to the State of Alaska and $5 for each additional copy ordered at the same time. The requester chooses one of the three report types, gives the subject's name, maiden or alias names, mailing address, Alaska driver license number, date of birth, sex and Social Security number, names the person and address to receive the report, and may give a fax number for the record. The form is not processed without the signed statement certifying under AS 11.56.210, the unsworn falsification statute, that the information supplied is true. State agencies with a reimbursable services agreement may fax the forms; everyone else mails them or brings them in. The form cites its authority as AS 12.62.160 on release, use and fees, AS 12.62.900 on definitions, and 13 AAC 68 article 4 on dissemination.
Employers and licensing agencies: client numbers and FBI checks
Many Alaska employers and licensing agencies must run checks by statute, and the bureau assigns client numbers to organizations that request them routinely; putting the client number on a fingerprint or name based request helps the bureau send the record to the right customer. To get one, the organization writes on its own stationery with the name and nature of the business, its physical and mailing addresses, the purpose of the request, a contact name and telephone number, and the state or federal statute that authorizes it to receive the information, with the full text of the statute when the authority is anything other than AS 12.62.160. The letter goes to the bureau at 5700 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99507, or by fax to 907-269-5091; once approved, the agency receives its number and instructions.
A national FBI check needs approval from the Attorney General of the United States, and the bureau keeps a list of Alaska statutes already approved for it. National criminal history information is released only to government agencies, so a private employer that needs one must either name a government agency, with its contact number and client number, that has agreed to receive and review the results, or give the bureau a specific list of disqualifying criteria for the position; the bureau then reviews the record and reports whether it contains disqualifying information.
Sealing a record built on mistaken identity or a false accusation
Alaska's sealing law, AS 12.62.180, lets a person ask the head of the agency that maintains past conviction or current offender information to seal information that, beyond a reasonable doubt, resulted from mistaken identity or false accusation. The DPS Request to Seal Criminal Justice Information packet goes to the chief of the bureau at the Tudor Road address and asks for the person and case details, an explanation of the mistaken identity or false accusation, and documentation: the arresting or citing officer and the prosecutor sign whether they agree, a dismissal or acquittal is shown by the court order, and a conviction must have been overturned by a court or pardoned by the Governor. The Commissioner of Public Safety decides, and the decision is the final administrative one; an adverse decision may be appealed to the court, where the appellant must show the agency was clearly mistaken.
Sealing has real effect. A person whose information is sealed may deny the existence of the information and of the arrest, charge, conviction or sentence it shows, and the sealed information can be given out only for record management and auditing, criminal justice employment, the subject's own review, research and statistics, to prevent imminent harm, or under a statute or court order. The Commissioner can seal only records that originated in Alaska, not those of other states or the federal government; the packet also notes that the bureau may ask for a full set of fingerprints to process the request. Under 13 AAC 68.205 the repository marks the record with the sealing order and its date.
Reading an Alaska report
Two limits run through everything DPS publishes. The report is Alaska information only, drawn from APSIN; an arrest in another state appears only through an FBI check that the law authorizes. And the name based report is a name match, which DPS itself says may miss a record kept under another name, which is why the $35 fingerprint check is the one it recommends when the answer matters. Because any person may buy the any person report, an Alaska check needs no consent from the subject unless it is run for employment or licensing, where the written permission or fingerprint rule applies.
Questions about background checks in Alaska
Related Alaska records
The DPS report is one record among several Alaska keeps on a person: the Alaska court records guide covers the court system's own public case files, the arrest records guide explains what an arrest makes public, the inmate search guide finds people in Department of Corrections custody, and the Alaska borough and census area pages list the local police and court contacts.