How a Background Check Works in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania's criminal history sits in the State Police Central Repository, and the State Police built the Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History site, PATCH, for agencies, companies and anyone else to request background checks on individuals: yourself, a potential hire or, for an attorney, a client. The reasons the State Police list run from hiring and volunteering to domestic and international adoption, fostering, visas and reviewing your own record.

Every check, online or by mail, is run against Pennsylvania law enforcement criminal history only, never federal records. A $22 check that matches nothing comes back at once as a No Record certificate; a match becomes a Request Under Review, which the State Police say does not necessarily mean a record exists, and is resolved by a manual review in up to two weeks for registered users and two to four weeks for everyone else.

  • Online: the PATCH site, $22 per individual check by Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express, up to ten checks a session, with the certificate printed from your own computer.
  • By mail: form SP 4-164 with a certified check or money order payable to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, $22 or $27 notarized, to the State Police Central Repository, 1800 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9758; no cash or personal checks.
  • Free for volunteers: form SP 4-164A or the PATCH volunteer request, signed to verify unpaid volunteer status, never notarized.
  • Your own full record: the individual access and review on form SP 4-170, $20, by mail only, not notarized, showing convictions and all non convictions.

Written by SearchSystems.net from Pennsylvania's own systems: the Pennsylvania State Police Request a Criminal History Background Check page, the State Police Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History (PATCH) overview, form SP 4-164, Request for Criminal Record Check, form SP 4-164A, Request for Criminal Record Check, Volunteer Only, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

Three checks and their fees

The State Police service page lists three products. The request for criminal history check, for individuals, runs on the PATCH site or on form SP 4-164 printed and mailed, at $22 with notarization for $5 more. The volunteer request for criminal history check is free and cannot be notarized, on the PATCH site or form SP 4-164A. The individual access and review, a review of a person's entire criminal record including convictions and all non convictions, which attorneys often order for court proceedings, expungements, partial expungements and governor's pardons, is requested only by mail on form SP 4-170 for $20 and cannot be notarized. All of them are checked against the files of the State Police Central Repository, which the State Police define as the central location for collecting, compiling, maintaining and disseminating criminal history record information, with the glossary pointing to Chapter 91 of Title 18 of the Crimes Code for definitions.

How PATCH answers

The requester enters the subject's information and PATCH checks it against the Central Repository database. When nothing matches, the result is instant and the requester prints a No Record certificate; the State Police say No Record certificates come back immediately 85 percent of the time. When something matches, the immediate response is Request Under Review, which does not necessarily mean the person has a record: a manual review follows, the status changes to No Record or Record, and an email tells the requester, who prints the certificate from their own computer. Registered users see the update within two weeks, non registered users in two to four weeks. The status of any request is checked on the Record Check Status screen with the control number, the date of the request and the subject's name as entered; it shows Record or No Record with a link to the certificate, Request Under Review, or No Items Found when something was entered wrong. Someone who mailed a request obtains the control number by calling 888-783-7972, option 1. A certificate is validated the same way, and a copy is reprinted from the certification form link on the request details.

Registered and non registered users

Companies, agencies and offices that routinely need checks become registered users by calling the PATCH help desk at 888-783-7972, option 4; they are invoiced every 30 days, may also pay by approved credit card, and submit up to ten requests in a session. Individuals are non registered users and cannot register, and companies may also use the system unregistered: they select Submit a New Record Check, give the requester's name and mailing address, the subject's information and a credit card, up to ten checks a session, and re enter everything each time, since PATCH keeps no requester or card data for them. Help comes from the PATCH helpline at 1-888-QUERYPA, 1-888-783-7972, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with messages returned after weekends and holidays.

The mailed forms

Form SP 4-164 is completed in ink by the requester, who alone receives the result by mail, and returned unprocessed if illegible or incomplete. It takes the requester's name, address and phone, the subject's names, maiden name and aliases, Social Security number, date of birth, sex and race, and the reason: international adoption, which must be notarized and mailed at $27, domestic adoption, employment, visa or other. The fee is a certified check or money order payable to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, $22.00 or $27.00 notarized, non refundable, with a fee exempt box for noncriminal justice agencies; cash and personal checks are refused. It goes to the Pennsylvania State Police, Central Repository 164, 1800 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9758, and warns that misidentification or false statements of identity to obtain another person's criminal history are punishable under 18 Pa.C.S. 4904(b). The volunteer form adds the volunteer's agency or organization and phone number and a signature verifying unpaid volunteer status, for which the $22 fee is waived, mailed to Central Repository RCPU at the same address. Both state that the State Police response is based on comparing the data supplied against the Central Repository files only.

Child abuse clearances and what PATCH is not

A PATCH check is not a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Certification; that clearance is run by the Department of Human Services, reached at 717-783-6211 or 1-877-371-5422. And a PATCH check is Pennsylvania only: the State Police repeat that online and mailed requests are checked against Pennsylvania law enforcement agency criminal history records, not federal records.

Reading a Pennsylvania certificate

A PATCH certificate is a Central Repository match on the identifiers supplied, which is why the form punishes false identity and why a Request Under Review is not yet a finding. A No Record certificate says the repository holds nothing under those identifiers in Pennsylvania; a Record certificate is read against the court docket before anything turns on it. The full picture, convictions and non convictions together, belongs to the person through the $20 access and review, and anything federal is outside the system.

Questions about background checks in Pennsylvania

Can I run a Pennsylvania background check on another person?
Yes. The State Police say a criminal record check can be requested on yourself, a potential hire or, for an attorney, a client, on the PATCH site for $22 or by mail on form SP 4-164.
How long does a PATCH check take?
A No Record result is immediate 85 percent of the time. A Request Under Review is resolved by manual review within two weeks for registered users and two to four weeks for non registered users, with an email when the status changes.
Is the volunteer check really free?
Yes. The volunteer request on the PATCH site or form SP 4-164A waives the $22 fee for an unpaid volunteer, who signs to verify that status; it cannot be notarized.
How do I see my own complete Pennsylvania record?
Through the individual access and review on form SP 4-170, $20, by mail only, which shows convictions and all non convictions; it cannot be notarized.
How do I pay by mail?
With a certified check or money order payable to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, $22.00 or $27.00 notarized, non refundable; cash and personal checks are not accepted. Online, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.
Does PATCH include federal records?
No. Every online and mailed request is checked against Pennsylvania law enforcement criminal history records only.

Related Pennsylvania records

The State Police check is one of the Pennsylvania records this site covers: the Pennsylvania arrest records page explains the Clean Slate sealing and expungement rules behind what a check shows, the court records guide covers the unified judicial system's dockets, the sex offender registry guide covers the Megan's Law site, and the Pennsylvania county pages list each sheriff and clerk of courts.