Iowa's criminal history is kept by the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Department of Public Safety, built from what Iowa's criminal justice agencies report to it under the Code of Iowa. The division sells a record check to anyone for $15 per last name, matched on name and exact date of birth; Iowa law does not require the subject's permission to ask.
Permission changes what comes back. Without a signed release from the subject, the division withholds completed deferred judgments and arrests more than 18 months old that have no final disposition; with the subject's signature on the division's own release form, DCI-77, the complete record is released as far as the law allows. Juvenile records stay confidential either way.
- Fee: $15.00 per last name, one request form and fee per name, paid by cash, check, money order, credit or debit card (MasterCard, Visa, Discover) or a prepaid DCI account.
- How to ask: the DCI request and billing forms by mail, fax or email, the online portal, or in person at 215 E 7th Street, Des Moines; the division takes no requests by phone.
- Turnaround: one to three days by the division's page, two to five business days by its FAQ, with immediate results at the counter only for a check on yourself with government photo ID.
- What a release adds: completed deferred judgments, which the DCI keeps as discharged non convictions, and arrests over 18 months old without a disposition.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Iowa's own systems: the Iowa Department of Public Safety criminal history record check information page, the DCI criminal history billing and request forms, DCI-76 and DCI-77, the Iowa Criminal History Record Check online site, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What the DCI holds and how it matches
The division is plain about the nature of its check. Iowa criminal history record checks are based on name and exact date of birth; without fingerprints, positive identification cannot be determined. The records themselves come from information other Iowa criminal justice agencies are required to send, so the division says it cannot guarantee their completeness. Every request must carry at least the subject's first name, last name and exact date of birth; gender, Social Security number and middle name are not required but help resolve common names and dates of birth. All records are supported by fingerprints at the division, which may ask for prints to verify identity when a result is disputed.
The request form and the billing form
Two forms travel together. The Criminal History Record Check Request Form, DCI-77, names the requester, how the results should come back, whether a notarized result is required, and the subject's last name, first name, date of birth and gender, with middle name and Social Security number recommended; it carries the release authorization the subject may sign. The Billing Form, DCI-76, carries the payment: a prepaid DCI account number, cash, a money order, a check payable to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, or a credit or debit card with its security code, at $15.00 per request. One billing form covers several request forms sent together, but a billing form that is incomplete or unpaid sends everything back unprocessed, and each last name needs its own request form and fee.
The forms go to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Support Operations Bureau, Dissemination Unit, 215 E 7th St, Des Moines, IA 50319, by fax to 515-725-6080 or by email to dcirecordchecks@dps.state.ia.us, which is also the address for questions; the division's phone is 515-725-6066. Results are mailed only to United States and Canadian addresses and faxed only to United States numbers, but emailed to any valid address as an encrypted PDF whose subject line contains secureemail. Someone abroad who needs a mailed or faxed result gives a family member's or friend's United States address or fax number on the forms and has it forwarded, and the division warns that an emailed result may not count as an original in another country.
Online, by mail and fax, or at the counter
The division's page describes an online portal that takes the same two forms, with a card or DCI account number on the billing form and a delivery address, fax number or email on both, submitted one request at a time; it quotes one to three days of processing for online, mailed, faxed and emailed requests depending on volume and staffing, while its FAQ says checks are generally processed and returned within two to five business days of receipt. Both figures are the division's own. When SearchSystems read it, the Iowa Criminal History Record Check site itself announced that a new site was being developed and the old one was offline, and sent requesters to the mail and fax forms, with the division able to mail, fax or email the forms to anyone who calls 515-725-6066.
In person, the office at the Oran Pape State Office Building, 215 E 7th Street, Des Moines, is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with walk in record checks processed from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Under Iowa Code chapter 692.2(1) the division can give immediate results only to the subject of the request, who must show a government issued photo ID such as a driver's license or passport; a request about someone else is left for normal processing.
No consent needed, but a release unlocks more
Iowa law does not require a release authorization to check another person. Without one, the division cannot release completed deferred judgments to non law enforcement requesters, or arrests more than 18 months old without a final disposition. The request form explains the rule from Iowa Code chapter 692.2: without a signed release a complete record may not be releasable, and DCI-77 is the only approved release form. The subject who signs it permits the named requester to run the check and acknowledges that the result can include completed deferred judgments and arrests without dispositions.
A completed deferred judgment is expunged only at the court; the division keeps it, marks the person discharged when the court reports the conditions met, treats it as a non conviction, and releases it only with the subject's signed release. The result sheet reads one of two ways: a record was found and a copy is included, carrying everything releasable by law given whether a release was supplied, or no Iowa criminal history was found with the DCI, which the division says can mean no record on file, information that is not releasable without a release, or juvenile information that no release can unlock.
Juvenile records
Most juvenile records are confidential under Iowa law and cannot appear in a DCI result, and a signed release does not change that. The route to confidential juvenile court records is an application under Iowa Code section 232.147(18) filed through the clerk of court. The form notes that convictions for certain juvenile sex offenses are visible on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry even though the underlying juvenile records remain confidential.
Notarized results, disputes and immigration
Notarizing results is not standard, but the division will notarize when the request form says it is required for immigration or for travel or work in another country. A person who disputes the accuracy of a result writes to dcirecordchecks@dps.state.ia.us with the details, the division reviews it, and because every record is backed by fingerprints it may ask for prints to verify identity. The division does not accept requests by phone, and the page says emailed results that have not arrived after the processing time should be looked for in a junk or spam folder.
Reading an Iowa result
An Iowa check is a name and date of birth match, which the division itself says cannot positively identify anyone, so a hit on a common name is confirmed through the court record or by fingerprints before anything is decided on it. A no record result without a release is not a clean record; it may hide a deferred judgment or an old arrest that only the subject's signature would reveal. And the result is Iowa only, drawn from what Iowa agencies reported, with no other state or federal history in it.
Questions about background checks in Iowa
Related Iowa records
The DCI result is one of several Iowa records covered on this site: the Iowa court records guide explains the judicial branch's own case files, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the registry the DCI result points to, and the Iowa county pages list each sheriff and clerk of court.