Nevada's criminal history repository is run by the Nevada State Police Records, Communications and Compliance Division in Carson City, whose stated mission is to provide complete, timely and accurate criminal justice information while balancing public safety against the individual's right to privacy. The balance tips toward privacy: the division's own instructions say that only the subject of an identification record may request a copy of their Nevada criminal history, or proof that none exists.
For everyone else, Nevada criminal history reaches employers, licensing boards and agencies through the civil applicant program, fingerprint based and priced under a fee structure that changed on October 1, 2026. The repository holds Nevada records only and says it cannot provide information from other states or the FBI.
- Your own record: form DPS-006, one original FD-258 fingerprint card with plain impressions taken by a certified technician, and $27.00 by money order or certified check to the Nevada Department of Public Safety, mailed to 333 West Nye Lane #100, Carson City, Nevada 89706; about 45 days.
- Two routes: the manual request, which must be used from outside Nevada, and the electronic request for a Nevada criminal history, which can be made only from inside the state.
- Fingerprint fees from October 1, 2026: $40.00 in total per fingerprint based submission and $32.50 for volunteers, each split between a $27.00 and a $13.00 portion on the division's fee sheet; since November 16, 2012 one applicant card is enough for any submission.
- Not held here: other states' records, FBI records, traffic accident reports and citations, which come from the investigating or issuing agency.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Nevada's own systems: the Nevada State Police Records, Communications and Compliance Division home page, the division's fees and forms page, the To Obtain a Copy of Nevada Criminal History Records instructions and form DPS-006, the fingerprint fee structure effective October 1, 2026, the division's history and sealing of records page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who may obtain a Nevada criminal history
The division's instructions, DPS-006, open with the rule: the Nevada Criminal History Repository provides personal criminal history record information for the State of Nevada only, cannot provide information for other states or the FBI, and releases a record, or proof that none exists, only to the subject of the identification record. There is no public name search of the repository and no third party request; a couple or a family each obtain their own packet and complete their own form. The form itself authorizes the repository to disclose the information in the subject's identification file to the subject or to the person or entity the subject names, which is how a record reaches an employer, a court or a consulate at the subject's choice.
Requesting your own record: DPS-006, prints and $27
The request has three parts stapled together. First, the Identification File Request for State of Nevada Records of Criminal History, form DPS-006, completed in full, typed or printed legibly, with the subject's names, mailing address, phone, email, date of birth and signature, the address to respond to and the reason for the request; the response cannot be forwarded by the postal service, so a changed address needs a new form. Second, proof of identity: one FD-258 fingerprint card carrying the name, date and place of birth, sex, race, height, weight, hair and eye color and the subject's signature, with all ten fingerprints taken simultaneously as plain or flat impressions, taken, dated and signed by a certified fingerprinting technician, and only an original card, never a copy or a previously processed one. Third, payment of $27.00 per applicant by money order or certified check made out to the Nevada Department of Public Safety, for the exact amount and signed; personal checks and cash are refused. The package goes to the Department of Public Safety, Records, Communications and Compliance Division, 333 West Nye Lane #100, Carson City, Nevada 89706, and anything missing or incomplete is returned. Processing takes approximately 45 days from receipt, and a duplicate response can be requested within 90 days of the original.
The answer is one of two letters: a state negative record response, saying no Nevada record was found, or a state positive record response, saying a record was located, with the complete content of that record. Under NRS 179.245 a person who was a victim of sex trafficking under NRS 201.300 at the time of the offense whose records are to be sealed pays no fee and signs the certification on page three of the form.
Manual and electronic requests
The division lists two requests for a Nevada criminal history on its fees and forms page: the manual request, which must be used for requests sent from out of state, and the electronic request, which can only be made from inside the State of Nevada. The division now also accepts payments by e-check, arranged by calling (775) 684-6262, with an e-check payment form for businesses. Since November 16, 2012 only one applicant fingerprint card is required for any manual or electronic fingerprint submission.
The fingerprint fee structure from October 1, 2026
The fee sheet signed by the division administrator sets the structure effective October 1, 2026 at 333 West Nye Lane, Suite 100, telephone (775) 684-6262, fax (775) 687-3289. A fingerprint based submission totals $40.00 and a volunteer submission $32.50, each shown as two portions, $27.00 and $13.00 for the standard submission and $21.50 and $11.00 for volunteers, which the sheet labels as the state fee and the FBI fee. The fingerprint, civil applicant program and LiveScan information for agencies, the criminal fingerprint card information and the criminal history FAQs are linked from the division's history and sealing page; the division also runs the point of contact firearms program, charges $26 for subpoenas to its communications bureau and keeps the NICS indices and mental health forms.
Sealing a Nevada criminal history
The same page carries the division's general and statutory information on sealing criminal history records and two petitions in Word format: a Petition to Seal Records for the district court and one for a justice or municipal court. A person seeking to seal records first obtains their own record on DPS-006, which is why the form carries the sex trafficking certification that waives the $27.00 fee for those petitioners.
What the division does not hold
The Records, Communications and Compliance Division does not maintain traffic accident reports or traffic citations; copies come from the law enforcement agency that investigated the accident or issued the citation. Driver's license and vehicle registration information belongs to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and DNA expungement runs on the division's own form in English and Spanish. The division's most requested pages also include the Nevada Sex Offender Registry, the carry concealed weapon permit and the uniform crime statistics.
Reading a Nevada response
A Nevada criminal history response is a fingerprint matched Nevada record, released to its subject and to whoever the subject names on the form. It carries nothing from other states or the FBI, and a negative response means no Nevada repository record, not a clean national history. Because the public cannot query the repository by name, the public record of a Nevada criminal case is the court's own file, and an employer's check runs through the civil applicant program at the fees above.
Questions about background checks in Nevada
Related Nevada records
The repository record is the one Nevada keeps closed; the records it keeps open are covered on this site: the Nevada court records guide explains the courts' own case files, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the registry the division runs, and the Nevada county pages list each sheriff and court clerk.