South Dakota's background checks are processed by the Identification Section of the Division of Criminal Investigation, DCI ID, inside the Attorney General's office, and they are fingerprint based by law: SDCL 23-5-12 requires the applicant to sign an authorization of release waiver and the search to rest on fingerprint identification. The repository holds only fingerprint supported arrests, so a person never fingerprinted at arrest has no DCI record.
Two checks exist. A state of South Dakota only check is offered to any individual requesting a copy of their own South Dakota criminal history, for $30. A state and FBI check is run for employment, certification and licensing only for the South Dakota agencies the Legislature has approved and the FBI has given an ORI, for $50, and those applicants are told to check their agency's extra requirements first. Guardianship applicants go to their clerk of courts and pistol permit applicants to their sheriff.
- Online plus Livescan: an account and the Background Check Request Form, payment by card or bank account, $30.00 personal or $50.00 agency, no refunds, then the receipt presented at a Livescan machine in South Dakota, usually by appointment, within 10 days or the request is deleted.
- By mail: a completed fingerprint card and the signed waiver with $30 by check or money order payable to the Division of Criminal Investigation, per SDCL 23-5-13; the supply kit and letter are mailed free on request to (605) 773-3331.
- Turnaround: five business days plus mail time, with a letter saying no record was found or a computer printout of the record, mailed to whoever the signed authorization names.
- Not released: juvenile records, except a juvenile transferred to adult court, and sealed suspended impositions of sentence, except certain sex crimes when the applicant seeks work such as teaching or law enforcement.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Dakota's own systems: the South Dakota Attorney General's Background Check Requirements page, the Attorney General's background check frequently asked questions, the Attorney General's fingerprint card order page, the Attorney General's Automated Fingerprint Identification System page, the Attorney General's Midwest Automated Fingerprint Identification Network page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The online request and the Livescan rule
The electronic route has conditions the Attorney General prints in capitals. Fingerprints must be submitted through a Livescan machine located in South Dakota, an appointment is most likely necessary at the Livescan location, and the applicant should contact the local facility before starting the request. The applicant creates and verifies an account, fills out the Background Check Request Form with the same information the Livescan operator will enter, agrees to the terms, the authorization and release of information, the privacy statement and the Privacy Act, and pays by credit card or bank account: $50.00 for an agency state and FBI check, $30.00 for a personal state only check, with no refunds. The receipt must be printed and taken to the Livescan location, which will not fingerprint anyone without it and may charge its own fingerprinting fee. An online request cannot be completed by mailing a hard card instead, and failing to submit the electronic prints within 10 days may delete the request and force a new one with a new payment.
Requesting by mail: the card, the waiver and $30
The FAQ describes the paper route for someone whose job requires a check on themselves: call the Division of Criminal Investigation at (605) 773-3331, ask for the Identification Section, and a supply kit with an explanatory letter is mailed at no cost. State law requires the applicant's signed authorization of release waiver and a fingerprint based search; the exception is a school district job, where SDCL 13-10-12 adds requirements and the district supplies its own procedures and materials. The $30 fee under SDCL 23-5-13 is paid when the applicant card and signed waiver are returned, by check or money order payable to the Division of Criminal Investigation. South Dakota state only fingerprint cards are ordered from the DCI on its order form; state and FBI cards come from the agency, department or board requiring the check, which holds the FBI approved cards. The Identification Section answers at 605-773-3331, option 1.
What comes back, and how fast
The Division requires five business days plus mail time to process a search and return the results. The response is a letter stating that no record was found, or a letter stating that a computer printout of the criminal record is enclosed from the technical search, mailed to whomever the signed authorization specifies. Juvenile delinquency does not appear: the Division maintains no juvenile records, only those of people under eighteen who were transferred to adult court, and every record in the repository is a fingerprint supported arrest. A suspended imposition of sentence that was discharged and ordered sealed by the court is not released for the purpose requested, with the exception of certain sex crimes when the applicant seeks certain employment, such as a school teacher or a law enforcement officer.
The fingerprint system behind the record
The Attorney General's AFIS page explains why the record is fingerprint built. South Dakota introduced its Automated Fingerprint Identification System in 1997 and upgraded it in June 2008 to drop manual scanning and link instantly to the FBI; the database holds all South Dakota criminal arrest information and offender prints, compares latent prints from crime scenes against tenprint images, and connects to the FBI's system so arrest information moves electronically instead of on ink and roll cards. Livescan reached the three largest contributing agencies in 1999 and spread statewide between 2001 and 2008, and by 2009 about 90 percent of South Dakota arrests were transmitted electronically. Since 1997 the DCI has also belonged to the Midwest Automated Fingerprint Identification Network, a shared regional database with Minnesota, whose Bureau of Criminal Apprehension hosts it in Saint Paul, and North Dakota, which matches records under alias names across the three states and searches new arrest prints against unsolved latent prints.
Expungement, pardons and the national record
The Attorney General sends anyone seeking expungement or a pardon to a private attorney, with the expungement statutes on the Legislature's site and executive clemency, including pardons, explained by the Department of Corrections. A federal background check on yourself comes from the FBI directly through its identity history summary process, not from the DCI.
Reading a South Dakota result
A South Dakota result is a fingerprint identification against a repository of South Dakota arrests, released only where the person's signed waiver sends it. A no record letter means no fingerprinted South Dakota arrest, nothing about other states or an arrest that was never printed, and the result never shows juvenile matters or sealed suspended impositions outside the sex crime exception. The $50 FBI layer exists only for the agencies the Legislature approved and the FBI gave an ORI.
Questions about background checks in South Dakota
Related South Dakota records
The DCI record is one of the South Dakota records this site covers: the South Dakota court records guide explains the Unified Judicial System's own case files, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the Attorney General's registry, and the South Dakota county pages list each sheriff and clerk of courts.