Michigan's criminal history is kept by the State Police Criminal Justice Information Center and opened two ways. By name, the Internet Criminal History Access Tool, ICHAT, lets anyone search the public record, which by law must include every felony and every serious misdemeanor punishable by more than 93 days reported by law enforcement, prosecutors and courts in all 83 counties. By fingerprint, the State Police search only when a state or federal statute, executive order or rule requires it, which is how employers and licensing agencies get their checks.
A criminal history record, in the State Police description, carries the person's descriptors and information on misdemeanor convictions and felony arrests and convictions. The public record is narrower than the full one: suppressed records and warrants never appear in ICHAT, and nothing federal, tribal, juvenile, traffic or local reaches it at all.
- ICHAT: the State Police name based public search of felonies and misdemeanors punishable by over 93 days reported from all 83 counties, with tutorials on the same page.
- Employers and licensing: form RI-030 from the employer or agency, fingerprints at an approved Livescan agency that collects the state and FBI fees, and results back to the requester in seven business days or less.
- Your own certified record: a Michigan Applicant Fingerprint Card, RI-008, or an FD-258 from outside Michigan, with a cover letter and $30.00 by money order or check to the State of Michigan, mailed to the State Police CJIC in Lansing; one original certified response in three to five weeks, $1.00 per extra original.
- Clean Slate: the State Police run a daily automatic set aside of eligible old convictions, and the court petition route costs $50 at the State Police with a fingerprint card.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Michigan's own systems: the Michigan State Police Criminal History Records page, the State Police Search, Expunge, Modify or Update Criminal History Records page, the State Police Conviction Set Aside Public Information page, the Attorney General's expungement assistance page, the State Police forms list, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
ICHAT: what the public search holds and leaves out
ICHAT searches the public criminal history record information maintained by the State Police Criminal Justice Information Center. Law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and courts in all 83 Michigan counties are required by law to report every felony and every serious misdemeanor punishable by more than 93 days to the state repository, and that is what the search returns. The State Police list what it does not return: suppressed records and warrant information are unavailable through ICHAT, and federal records, tribal records, traffic records, juvenile records, local misdemeanors and criminal history from other states are not included at all. A record that may exist in another state has to be requested from that state directly. The Criminal History Records page links the tool and its tutorials, and points separately to the Department of Corrections' Offender Tracking Information System, which covers prisoners, parolees and probationers under supervision or discharged within the last three years.
Fingerprint checks for employment and licensing
Where a law requires fingerprints, the State Police procedure is fixed. The applicant obtains form RI-030, the Livescan Fingerprint Background Check Request, from the employer or licensing agency, completes sections II and IV, and goes to an approved Livescan agency, which collects the state and FBI search fee and may add its own service fee; some sheriffs and police departments also run Livescan sites, and the State Police recommend calling ahead to confirm applicant fingerprinting hours. Turnaround is seven business days or less, with the response returned to the employer or licensing agency named on the form, not to the applicant.
Your own record for a visa, immigration, adoption or personal review: $30
A fingerprint based search for a visa, immigration, a personal records check or an adoption works through the mail. A Michigan resident goes to a local law enforcement agency and is printed on a Michigan Applicant Fingerprint Card, RI-008, completed in full; the agency may use a Livescan machine but cannot submit the prints electronically and must hand over the printed card. A non resident who needs a Michigan check goes to any law enforcement agency in their own state for an FBI Applicant Fingerprint Card, FD-258, writing the reason, such as visa, immigration, personal record review or adoption, in the reason fingerprinted block. The card goes with a cover letter explaining the reason, a return address and a phone number or email, and a $30.00 processing fee by money order or check payable to the State of Michigan, to the Michigan State Police, CJIC, P.O. Box 30266, Lansing, Michigan 48909-7766. The State Police send the record only to the person who was printed, never to another person or agency even on request, as one original certified and notarized response, with additional originals at $1.00 each; processing and mail delivery take three to five weeks. A national record for the same purposes comes from the FBI directly, on an FD-258 with the FBI's fee and a letter, or by calling 304-625-5590.
Correcting a record, destroying fingerprints and name changes
Corrections, modifications and updates must come from the agency that reported the information; anything received from anyone else is verified with that agency before the State Police change a record. An arrest reported in error is taken up with the arresting agency named in the arrest segment of the record, a charge segment with the prosecuting attorney's office named in it, and court information with the court named in the judicial segment, and the agencies update the record from there; courts unable to update electronically use the RI-027 Judicial Correction Worksheet. Fingerprints from a case ending in not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, dismissal or nolle prosequi can be destroyed under MCL 28.243 on form MC235, a Motion for Destruction of Biometric Data and Arrest Card completed by the court and signed by the judge, faxed to 517-241-0866 or mailed to the CJIC box; prints cannot be destroyed when the case was dismissed under the listed diversion statutes, among them the Controlled Substance Act, the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, the Spouse Abuse Act and the drug, veterans and mental health treatment court laws. Since April 2, 2025 a legal name change no longer requires or allows a fingerprint based check; petitions filed by April 1, 2025 still ran on an RI-008 card with a $42.00 fee.
Clean Slate: automatic set asides
Michigan's set aside laws changed on April 11, 2021, under the Clean Slate package signed as Public Act 193 of 2020, and the automatic process took effect in April 2023. The Attorney General's expungement page explains it: the State Police run a daily automatic process that removes certain old convictions once the waiting period is met, with no application or court appearance. Misdemeanors punishable by less than 93 days are cleared without limit after seven years; misdemeanors punishable by 93 days or more, up to four, after seven years; felonies, up to two, after ten years from sentencing or release, whichever is later. A person checks the result in ICHAT and emails the State Police if a conviction they believe eligible was not cleared. An expunged conviction is removed from public view, so most employers, landlords and background checks will not see it, while law enforcement and some licensing agencies still can.
Clean Slate: the court petition
A conviction not eligible for the automatic process can be set aside by application to the court that handled it, a separate application for each court. Over a lifetime a person may apply to remove up to three felonies, unlimited misdemeanors, no more than two assaultive crimes and only one felony punishable by ten or more years; some traffic convictions can be set aside but stay on the driving record. The waiting periods are seven years for multiple felonies, five years for a single felony or certain serious misdemeanors and three years for most other misdemeanors, restarted by any new conviction. A first offense of operating while intoxicated without injury or death can be removed after five years, and a marijuana misdemeanor for conduct legal since 2018 runs through a simplified process in which the prosecutor has 60 days to respond, the court must order the set aside within 21 days of silence, and a contested case is heard within 30 days with the burden on the prosecutor. Excluded entirely are felonies punishable by life, first through third degree criminal sexual conduct, fourth degree if convicted on or after January 12, 2015, second degree child abuse, child sexually abusive activity, certain computer crimes, any OWI beyond a first offense, traffic offenses involving a commercial license or serious injury or death, felony domestic violence with a prior and human trafficking.
The steps the Attorney General lists: review the record in ICHAT, which shows no juvenile cases; get certified copies of the judgment of sentence, probation order or register of actions from the convicting court; be fingerprinted on an RI-008 card, or an FD-258 from out of state; complete form MC227, or MC227a for marijuana, signed before a notary; file in the convicting court and ask for a hearing date; and mail copies to the Michigan State Police with the $50 fee and fingerprint card, to the Attorney General's ACE Division and to the prosecutor. The State Police send the criminal history report to the court, the Attorney General's response may take up to three months after that, and the judge decides at the hearing, after which the clerk sends a granted order to the State Police, the prosecutor and the Attorney General.
Reading a Michigan check
ICHAT is the public Michigan record and nothing more: felonies and misdemeanors over 93 days from Michigan courts, minus suppressed records, warrants and everything set aside. A clean ICHAT result does not rule out a local misdemeanor, a traffic case, a juvenile matter, a federal case or another state. The fingerprint check settles identity and reaches the full record, but only an authorized employer or agency, or the person themselves by mail, can obtain it.
Questions about background checks in Michigan
Related Michigan records
The State Police record is one of the Michigan records this site covers: the Michigan court records guide explains the courts' own case files behind each conviction, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the inmate search guide covers the Offender Tracking Information System, and the Michigan county pages list each sheriff and county clerk.