Alabama's criminal history repository sits inside the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, where the Criminal Records Identification Unit keeps the fingerprint files of every person arrested in the state. ALEA opens that repository two ways: a subscription system for qualifying employers, and a fingerprint based application through which a person obtains their own record.
There is no name search of the ALEA repository sold to the general public. Someone who needs to know what the state holds on another person either goes through an employer channel with that person's cooperation, or turns to the court system's paid case search, which indexes the cases themselves rather than the arrest files.
- Employers: the Alabama Background Check System, a secure web site for qualifying employers checking current and prospective employees, by subscription.
- Your own record: the ALEA Application to Review Alabama Criminal History Record Information, filed with fingerprints, a photo ID copy and a $25 money order or cashier's check, in person in Montgomery or by mail.
- Court cases: the Alabama Court Records Access name search at $9.99, covering criminal, civil, small claims, state traffic, domestic relations and child support cases.
- Errors: a challenge form, Appendix A of the same application, filed within one year with the arrest, the agency and the documents that show the entry is wrong.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alabama's own systems: the ALEA Alabama Background Check page, the ALEA Criminal Records Identification Unit page, the ALEA Application to Review Alabama Criminal History Record Information, SBI Form 46, the Alabama Court Records Access site, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The repository: ALEA's Criminal Records Identification Unit
The unit that answers Alabama background checks belongs to the State Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. ALEA describes its Criminal Records Identification Unit as three sections: a Records Check Section that responds to criminal history and background inquiries and releases what the law allows, a Criminal History Section that maintains the fingerprint files of all arrested offenders in the state of Alabama as well as deceased persons and keeps the Criminal History Repository accurate, and an Automated Fingerprint Identification Services section, AFIS, that stores, matches and retrieves the fingerprint images.
That structure explains what an Alabama check is. The record is built from arrest fingerprints, not from names, so a self review is run on the applicant's own prints and a challenge is settled against the prints on file for the disputed arrest.
The Alabama Background Check System for employers
ALEA calls the Alabama Background Check System, ABC, a secure, web based site that allows qualifying employers to access the most up to date, comprehensive Alabama criminal records available for current and prospective employees. Access is by subscription and login. ALEA's page does not define which employers qualify; it directs questions about the program to 1-866-740-4762 or 334-676-7897, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central.
The page carries ALEA's warning in capitals: any person who willingly requests, obtains or seeks to obtain criminal offender record information under false pretenses is subject to felony penalties, every transaction is monitored and logged, and unauthorized use of the system will be prosecuted.
Getting your own record: the $25 fingerprint based review
For what ALEA calls public background check purposes, the route is the ALEA Application to Review Alabama Criminal History Record Information, SBI Form 46. The applicant is fingerprinted, provides a copy of a current photo ID, the completed application and a $25 payment by money order or cashier's check, with each additional copy $5 more. The package goes in person to 301 S. Ripley Street, Montgomery, AL 36104, on the Adams Avenue side, or by mail to P.O. Box 1511, Montgomery, AL 36102-1511. Questions go to 334-676-7897.
The form itself sets the rest of the rules. The fingerprints must be a classifiable set taken by an authorized law enforcement agency. The application must be signed by the applicant in front of two witnesses or be notarized. The $25 administrative fee applies to personal requests only and is payable to ALEA, Criminal Records and Identification Unit; someone applying for state employment, licensure or certification is told to follow that agency's own fee requirements instead. The form's affidavit authorizes ALEA to release the applicant's criminal history record information, including what the FBI holds, to the requesting agency or authorized agent the applicant names, which is how the self review doubles as a consent based check for an employer or licensing board.
Which identification the application accepts
The application must include one copy of a valid, unexpired photo identification from a short list: a United States state issued photo driver license or non driver ID card; a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services document, which may be a Certificate of Naturalization (N-550, N-570 or N-578) or a Certificate of Citizenship (N-560, N-561, or the posthumous N-645 or N-645A); a United States passport; or a foreign passport that carries a valid United States visa or an I-94 as primary proof of identity. A foreign passport not issued in English must be translated and accompanied by a certificate of accurate translation, and an untranslated or expired passport is not accepted.
Challenging an entry you believe is wrong
Appendix A of the same form is the challenge. ALEA lets an individual challenge or appeal any portion of their own criminal history record information that they believe to be inaccurate, by mailing the form and supporting documents to the Criminal Records and Identification Unit at P.O. Box 1511, Montgomery, AL 36102-1511, attention Record Challenge. The challenge must be returned within one year of the record being provided; after that a new request to review must be filed before a challenge can be made.
For each arrest or disposition disputed, the challenger lists the specific charge, the date and the arresting agency or court, attaches official documentation from that agency or court, and explains why the entry is inaccurate, what the correct information is and where it came from. ALEA reviews the challenge, may send it to the originating criminal justice agency that holds the information, and says the process may take several weeks or longer. The form cites the federal rule behind the right, 28 CFR 16.34, which lets a person challenge any part of their state or federal record.
The penalty for misusing a record
The application quotes Section 41-9-601 of the Code of Alabama 1975: any person who willfully requests, obtains or seeks to obtain criminal offender record information under false pretenses, or who willfully communicates or seeks to communicate it to any agency or person without authorization, may be guilty of a felony, with a fine of not less than $5,000 nor more than $10,000, imprisonment in the state penitentiary for not more than five years, or both. The same section is the reason the public route to another person's Alabama record runs through that person's signed release.
The court route: Alabama Court Records Access
For a check on someone who has not signed a release, the record that is open to anyone is the court file, and Alabama sells its statewide case index through Alabama Court Records Access. The site covers criminal, civil, small claims, state traffic, domestic relations and child support records, searched by name or by case number. A name search costs $9.99 and includes one case detail report, with each further case $9.99; a case number search is $9.99; document images are $5.00 for the first 20 pages and $0.50 per page after that. A case detail report shows basic case information, court actions and rulings, case status, setting dates, party information, financial history and the case action summary. Case monitoring, which emails the subscriber whenever the state system records a change, costs $19.99 for a district case and $29.99 for a circuit case for the life of the case.
The court index and the ALEA repository are different records. A case file shows what a court did with a charge; the ALEA record shows the arrests on file by fingerprint. A conviction found in Alacourt is the court's record of it, which is the document an employer or a licensing board asks for when a state record is disputed.
Reading an Alabama check
An Alabama record is an Alabama record. ALEA builds the repository from the fingerprint files of people arrested in Alabama, so an arrest by another state's police or by a federal agency is not an Alabama arrest card, and the self review form speaks separately of state and federal criminal history record information. The window on accuracy is the one year challenge rule: a person who obtains their own record and finds an error has twelve months to dispute it on that request before a fresh application is needed.
Questions about background checks in Alabama
Related Alabama records
The ALEA review and the court index are two of the records this site covers for Alabama: the Alabama court records guide explains the case files behind a conviction, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers ALEA's public registry, and the Alabama county pages list each county's sheriff and circuit clerk.