The Vermont Crime Information Center, VCIC, inside the Department of Public Safety at 45 State Drive in Waterbury, is the only official source for criminal history information from the State of Vermont. Its records are identity based: before information joins a person's record an identity verification takes place, which the center contrasts with court dockets, where anything attached to a case number is included without checking who the person is, and with internet record checking companies that copy those dockets.
Two documents exist. A criminal conviction report shows only conviction information submitted by the courts and is available to anyone; a criminal history report shows all arrest and disposition information, including pending, acquitted and dismissed charges, and is available only to the person of record. Pursuant to Vermont law, anyone may obtain a criminal conviction report on anyone else with the person's name and date of birth, and no release form is required.
- Online: the Vermont Criminal Conviction Record Request Service, $30.00 per report by credit card, with the result on screen at once to print or save; the requester gives a name, business, email, the subject's name and date of birth and a valid reason and relation, and agrees to the usage terms.
- Notarized copy: by mail, five to seven business days, or in person at the Waterbury office in about ten minutes; the online service does not provide a notarized letter. Fee $30, by cash, credit card, certified check or money order at the office.
- Your own full history: free, only in person at the Vermont Criminal Information Center in Waterbury, with two forms of positive identification; for a fingerprint supported check on yourself, the FBI directly, since VCIC does not provide that service to individuals.
- Contact: Vermont Crime Information Center, Criminal Records Section, 45 State Drive, Waterbury VT 05671-1300, (802) 241-5320, DPS.RecordChecks@vermont.gov; closed on state holidays.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Vermont's own systems: the Vermont Crime Information Center Record Checks page, the center's record check frequently asked questions, the Vermont Criminal Conviction Record Request Service, the center's Fingerprint Identification Centers page, the center's Criminal History Repository page, the center's Expungement, Sealing and Pardon page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The $30 conviction report
The record checks page splits requests by whether a notarized copy is needed. Without one, the online Vermont Conviction Report service takes a name and date of birth and charges $30.00 per conviction report, with the benefit of an immediate result on the requester's computer. A notarized copy, required for personal review, international adoption, licensing, employment, housing, a Governor's pardon, a civil court proceeding, child custody, or foreign travel and immigration, comes only by mail or in person; mailed requests take five to seven business days, incomplete forms come back unprocessed, and a walk in gets the notarized record check in approximately ten minutes. The fee is $30 either way, payable in the office by cash, credit card, certified check or money order, and online by credit card. A conviction record, in the online service's words, is a record of conviction in a Vermont district court. The usage agreement under Title 20, Chapter 117, Section 2056(c) binds every requester: no alteration of the report, no disclosure to anyone but the subject or properly designated employees of an agency with a documented need to know, and no requiring an applicant to obtain, personally submit or pay for a copy of their own conviction record.
Your own criminal history
A criminal history report, with every arrest and disposition including pending, acquitted and dismissed charges, is available only to the person of record, may be viewed at no charge, and is available only by appearing in person at the center in Waterbury; walk ins who want their complete history need two forms of positive identification from the center's list. VCIC does not run fingerprint supported checks for individuals: a person who needs one on themselves books an appointment at an Identification Center and submits the prints to the FBI directly.
Fingerprint checks for schools and care providers
Vermont's fingerprint supported checks belong to its schools and its qualified entities. An educational institution that requires a fingerprint supported check, and a vulnerable population agency qualifying under the National Child Protection Act, use the conviction record service's agency accounts or apply through VCIC; an institution that does not require fingerprints uses the online application like anyone else. The processing fee is $12.00 for education and NCPA employment checks and $10.00 for volunteers, and the Identification Center taking the prints may charge up to $35. A school applicant brings a Fingerprint Authorization Certificate, the FAC, from the school, without which the center will not take prints; VCIC contacts the school if there is a problem and shreds the prints once processed, and prints taken for a school cannot be released to anyone but another Vermont educational institution, so they cannot double as a visa check. No applicant may mail prints to VCIC: all fingerprints must come from a law enforcement agency, and a school cannot accept a private employer's fingerprint check. Employees hired before July 1998 are grandfathered without a fingerprint supported check unless they change schools.
The fifteen Identification Centers
The Identification Centers are law enforcement agencies, at least one per county, whose staff are trained to fingerprint applicants, and the center publishes a list dated May 2026. An applicant may use any center, should call ahead because emergencies delay appointments, must leave children and infants at home or be refused service, and shows two forms of identification: two from the primary list of a driver's license, non driver ID or government ID card or passport with a photograph, or one primary and one secondary, such as a signed credit card, student ID or check cashing card; two secondary documents are not accepted. Prints are rolled in ink or scanned electronically, open cuts stop the session, badly worn ridges may mean a return visit after two weeks of treatment, and the fee of up to $35 covers additional sets if the first is unusable. An ink card goes unfolded in a manila envelope to the agency running the check; electronic prints transfer to VCIC automatically and the applicant takes a receipt instead. VCIC accepts applicant cards only from Vermont criminal justice personnel certified by the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council and checked nationally themselves, or from an out of state law enforcement agency on the federal FD-258 card.
What a qualified entity receives
A qualified entity under the National Child Protection Act, an individual, business, agency or organization whose employees, contractors or volunteers provide care or care placement for children, the elderly or people with disabilities, applies to VCIC in writing on letterhead explaining how it meets the definition; only Vermont businesses qualify. Searches may be requested on anyone who seeks to work or volunteer for, own or operate, or have unsupervised access to those the entity serves, and an entity that does not check everyone should keep a written policy applied uniformly. The report carries every conviction from the Vermont District Courts and serious motor vehicle convictions after September 1, 1995; by law, arrests that did not end in conviction, pending charges and juvenile convictions outside adult court are not reported. The applicant may appeal the result in writing to VCIC, which makes every effort to resolve record appeals within three business days, and the law does not require an entity to deny a position over a record.
What the repository holds and leaves out
The Criminal History Repository consolidates and verifies arrest, prosecution, sentencing and correctional information from agencies statewide into a record of identification, arrest, citation, arraignment, judicial disposition, custody and supervision. It does not include motor vehicle offenses such as DWI, driving with a suspended license, careless and negligent driving or vehicular homicide arraigned before September 1, 1995, charges arraigned in Family Court, the Traffic Ticket Bureau or the Municipal Ordinance Bureau, records of juveniles unless prosecuted in District Court as adults, out of state charges, or charges that were expunged.
Expungement, sealing and pardons
The repository staff purge charges only on a court order or a request from the Governor's office under a pardon, and warn that a Vermont record lives in many databases; VCIC purges the state repository, the AFIS fingerprint and mugshot system, and notifies the FBI, which can take as long as six months to remove the record nationally. An expungement, signed by a judge, permanently removes all information on a charge or a whole record, so completely that no document about it may be kept; a sealing keeps the information but restricts access to specific criminal justice purposes. Either is petitioned in the District Court of conviction with articulable reasons, and a Governor's pardon, rarely given and requiring substantial justification, is sought from the Governor's office.
Reading a Vermont result
A Vermont conviction report is a name and date of birth match against district court convictions, verified by identity before it reached the record, and the online version is not notarized; it never shows arrests without conviction, pending charges, juvenile matters outside adult court, pre 1995 traffic crimes or anything from another state. The full history exists only for the person who walks into Waterbury, and the FBI check for schools and care providers runs on prints that VCIC shreds afterward.
Questions about background checks in Vermont
Related Vermont records
The VCIC record is one of the Vermont records this site covers: the Vermont court records guide explains the Judiciary's own case files, the arrest records guide covers what an arrest makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the registry VCIC also keeps, and the Vermont county pages list each sheriff and court clerk.