The Bureau of Criminal Identification, BCI, inside the Utah Department of Public Safety, holds the state's criminal history and runs its background checks from the Taylorsville State Office Building at 4315 South 2700 West, Suite 1300, open 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday and closed on weekends and state holidays, at (801) 965-4445. Its Criminal Background Checks 101 guide tells an employer, licensing board or volunteer program to call option 6 first and pick one of three options: a personal records check the person requests on themselves, a name and date of birth check available only to entities Utah Code Annotated 53-10-108 qualifies, or a fingerprint based check through the Western Identification Network and, where federal law allows, the FBI.
The deciding fact is who is asking. Entities that work with children and vulnerable adults, hold fiduciary trusts or touch national security interests qualify under 53-10-108; private child care placement and adoption entities qualify for FBI data under Public Law 105-251 and the Adam Walsh Act; state and local government officials qualify under Public Law 92-544 when a statute requires fingerprinting; and every other employer has one option, asking the employee to obtain a copy of their own record from BCI or the FBI.
- Your own record: $20.00 in person at BCI with a valid government photo ID, or by mail with the Criminal History Record Application, a photocopy of your ID and four right hand fingerprints taken by a police department or sheriff; the report is mailed and never faxed or emailed.
- Qualified entities: the WIN and FBI fingerprint based submission costs $33 for volunteers and $35 for employees, licensees and contractors since October 1, 2026, up $3 each after the FBI's fee review, with Rap Back an extra one time $10; questions to 801-965-4445, option 6 then option 2.
- Nationwide record: not through BCI for personal use: a written request goes to the FBI's CJIS Division, Special Correspondence Unit, Module D-2, 1000 Custer Hollow Road, Clarksburg, WV 26306-0171.
- Fingerprints: BCI prints the public by appointment only for non criminal purposes, $20 for up to three cards since July 1, 2025 and $5 for each card after three, with a government ID and never a Driving Privilege Card.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Utah's own systems: the Bureau of Criminal Identification's Criminal Records page, the bureau's Obtain a Copy of Your Own Criminal History Record page, the Criminal History Record Application, revised July 1, 2025, the bureau's Utah Criminal Records Forms page, the bureau's Employment/Volunteer Background Checks page, the Criminal Background Checks 101 guide, the bureau's Fingerprint Services for the Public page, the bureau's Employment Background Checks Forms page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Your own Utah record: the $20 Right of Access
The bureau's own record page gives two ways to get a copy of your own Utah criminal history. In person, the fee is $20.00, payable in cash, personal check, Visa or MasterCard, money order or cashier's check, with a valid government issued picture ID; a Utah Driving Privilege Card is not accepted as ID. By mail, the Criminal History Record Application, revised July 1, 2025, asks for every previous name including married and maiden names, a signature under Utah Code Ann. 53-10-108(9)(a) with a class B misdemeanor warning for false statements, and the four fingers of the right hand printed simultaneously by a law enforcement official such as a city police department or county sheriff's office, who records the ID checked; a 10 print card may be sent instead, and BCI itself takes the prints without an appointment for this purpose. A photocopy of the ID goes in the envelope with the $20.00 fee by check or money order in US currency payable to Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, or by Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express with the cardholder's signature, the three digit code and the expiration date; cash is accepted only in person. The report is mailed to the address on the application, goes to a third party only with the separate Third Party Release form, and cannot be faxed or emailed. The Criminal Records page notes that 2025 legislation raised the Right of Access fee and the Record Challenge fee to $20 each on July 1, 2025, and the application states that the bureau does not maintain juvenile offender records, which are requested from the Juvenile Court.
Right of Access agencies and the FBI route
The forms page publishes a list of Right of Access agencies, offices around the state able to give members of the public copies of their own Utah criminal histories, never anyone else's, each with its own policies, procedures, fees and hours to be checked first. For a criminal history from another state, or the FBI's own file, the subject of a record indexed in the FBI's database submits a formal written request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, CJIS Division, Attention: Special Correspondence Unit, Module D-2, 1000 Custer Hollow Road, Clarksburg, WV 26306-0171. The same page carries the Record Challenge Form for disputing what the Utah record shows.
Checks on employees and volunteers: who qualifies
The employment page opens with the fee change: after the FBI's review of its fingerprint based fees, the WIN and FBI fingerprint based submission rose on October 1, 2026 from $30 to $33 for volunteers and from $32 to $35 for employees, licensees and contractors, and Rap Back adds a one time $10. Utah Code Annotated 53-10-108 lets qualifying entities request Utah criminal history for the care, custody and control of children, fiduciary trusts, national security interests and the care of vulnerable adults; Public Law 105-251, the Volunteers for Children Act of October 9, 1998 amending the National Child Protection Act of 1993, lets those caring for children and vulnerable adults request fingerprint based national checks of volunteers and employees. Since July 1, 2015 the bureau has qualified private entities, including any that provide child care placement services and adoptions, to submit fingerprint based checks to the FBI, and Utah is approved to give FBI criminal information to private entities qualifying under Public Law 109-248, the Adam Walsh Act. Under Public Law 92-544, state and local government officials may use FBI records for employment and licensing only under a legislatively enacted statute that requires fingerprinting, authorizes FBI records and names the category of applicants, and never for a private entity. An employer outside these categories can only ask its employees to apply to BCI or the FBI for their own record. The forms for authorized agencies are the application to become a qualified entity, the Utah Consent to Background Check form, and the authorizations to transfer an FBI Rap Back subscription for NCPA and VCA entities and school employees, or a WIN Rap Back subscription for tow truck operators.
The three options in the bureau's own guide
The Criminal Background Checks 101 guide, dated October 2017, lays out the options an entity chooses from after calling option 6. A personal records check has the person request the check on themselves and hand over the results, with separate Utah and FBI processes and a third party release that lets BCI send the Utah result straight to the entity. A name and date of birth check through BCI is allowed for qualified entities under 53-10-108, a non qualified entity may petition the Commissioner of Public Safety for access to Utah records for employment, and no name and date of birth check is allowed through the FBI. A fingerprint based check runs through the Western Identification Network for entities qualifying under 53-10-108, another Utah statute or the Commissioner's authorization, and nationwide for those qualifying under Public Law 105-251, 109-248 or 92-544. The guide groups entities into three categories: employment, volunteer selection and licensure checks for those working with children, vulnerable adults, fiduciary trusts and national security; private entities and private adoption checks; and everyone else, whose only option is an employee's own copy.
What the applicant must be told
Every applicant must be notified that a criminal history background check will be conducted under the guidelines in UCA 53-10-108(4) and given the opportunity to review and challenge the results. On copies, the bureau's two documents differ: the current employment page says 53-10-108(4)(g) allows a qualifying entity to give the applicant a copy of the report, which the applicant may use only to review, respond to or challenge its accuracy, while the 2017 guide said the statute did not allow a copy of any background check information, FBI data included, to be given to the applicant, who could instead obtain a copy through the personal records procedure. A qualifying entity receiving FBI criminal history must also give the applicant the FBI Privacy Act Statement and the FBI Noncriminal Justice Applicant's Privacy Rights, in addition to the signed waiver.
Fingerprinting at the bureau
BCI offers Livescan, digital and wet ink fingerprinting for applicant purposes, among them concealed firearm permits, private investigator and bail enforcement licenses, school teachers, real estate agents, armed and unarmed guards, burglar alarm agents, health care and day care workers, Office of Education certification and adoptions, by appointment only, with a government issued ID and never a Utah Driving Privilege Card; the bureau cannot take criminal or court ordered prints. The fingerprint services page lists $15.00 for up to three cards, $20 after July 1, 2025, $5.00 for each additional card, and $30.00 for Driving Privilege Card fingerprints and photo, $35 after that date. Technicians can attach an affidavit to a card for an apostille, which the Lieutenant Governor's office provides, not BCI; only the person being printed enters the fingerprint room, with exceptions for interpreters and physical assistance. Applications for a Utah criminal history or an expungement need no appointment.
Reading a Utah result
A Utah background check is either the person's own $20 record, a name and date of birth match returned to a qualified entity, or a fingerprint identification through WIN and the FBI; no public name search of the repository exists, and the FBI layer reaches only entities a federal law and a state statute qualify. The record holds adult Utah arrests and dispositions, with juvenile matters at the Juvenile Court, and a disputed entry is answered with the $20 record challenge. A nationwide record for personal use comes from the FBI, not from Taylorsville.
Questions about background checks in Utah
Related Utah records
The BCI record is one of the Utah records this site covers: the Utah court records guide explains the state courts' own case search, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the Sex, Kidnap and Child Abuse Registry BCI runs, and the Utah county pages list each sheriff and clerk.