The West Virginia State Police keep the state's fingerprints, photographs and criminal records at the Criminal Identification Bureau at headquarters, which W. Va. Code 15-2-24 orders the superintendent to establish, equip and maintain for receiving and filing fingerprints, photographs, records and other information on the investigation of crime and the apprehension of criminals. The bureau's Criminal Records section, at (304) 746-2418, handles record checks and expungements.
The rule for anyone outside law enforcement is in subsection (d): the bureau may furnish fingerprints, photographs, records or other information, with the approval of the superintendent, to any private or public agency, person, firm, association, corporation or other organization, but every such request must be accompanied by a written authorization signed and acknowledged by the person whose record is to be released. West Virginia has no public name search; the subject signs, and the State Police release.
- Where: through IdentoGO, the State Police's fingerprint vendor, by appointment on its website or at 855-766-7746; the Criminal Records page says a check can no longer be obtained at State Police headquarters or by fingerprinting at any law enforcement agency.
- Used for: pre employment, housing, licensing and certification, and personal information, in the State Police's own list.
- The law: W. Va. Code 15-2-24: government and law enforcement agencies receive records on a proper request for official duties under subsection (c); everyone else needs the subject's signed and acknowledged authorization under subsection (d).
- Contact: West Virginia State Police, 725 Jefferson Road, South Charleston, WV 25309, 304-746-2100; Criminal Records section (304) 746-2418, fax (304) 746-2294.
Written by SearchSystems.net from West Virginia's own systems: the West Virginia State Police Criminal Records page, the State Police list of qualified NCPA/VCA agencies, West Virginia Code 15-2-24, Criminal Identification Bureau, West Virginia Code 61-11-26, expungement of certain criminal convictions, the State of West Virginia agency page for the State Police, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Getting a West Virginia record check
The State Police answer the practical questions on the Criminal Records page. A background check is obtained through IdentoGO's website or its toll free number, 855-766-7746; asked whether a person can still go to West Virginia State Police headquarters for one, the page answers no, an appointment with IdentoGO is required, and asked whether any law enforcement agency can still take the fingerprints, it answers no again, since all background checks go through IdentoGO services. The page names the uses the checks serve, pre employment, housing, licensing and certification and personal information, and quotes the statute that governs the release: records go to a private or public agency, person, firm, association, corporation or organization only with the superintendent's approval and the written, signed and acknowledged authorization of the person whose record it is. The page gives no fee; the Code, in subsection (l), lets the State Police assess a fee on applicants, covered providers and covered contractors for conducting the check and for collecting and retaining fingerprints for Rap Back, paid into the WVSP Criminal History Account.
What the bureau holds
The same section of the Code describes how the record is built. Under subsection (g), every member of the State Police, every sheriff, deputy and peace officer must take the fingerprints and description of every person they arrest or detain on a charge punishable by confinement in a penal or correctional institution, or whom they believe to be a fugitive or a habitual criminal, and send them in duplicate to the bureau, with photographs when possible; under subsection (f), the person in charge of every penal or correctional institution, city and county jails included, must fingerprint everyone committed or confined and do the same. The clerk of every court of record, every magistrate and every municipal court reports the sentence or other disposition of each criminal charge to the bureau monthly, on the department's forms, and prosecuting attorneys report what the bureau asks for its annual crime report. Subsection (h) gives one way out: a person who was fingerprinted or photographed, acquitted of the charges, and has no previous criminal record may, on satisfactory proof to the department, have the fingerprints or photographs returned. Neglecting these duties is a misdemeanor carrying $25 to $200 or up to sixty days, and destroying bureau records up to $100 or six months.
Rap Back: applicant prints are kept
Subsection (k), added by the Legislature in 2015 and 2017, provides that the Criminal Identification Bureau and the FBI retain applicant fingerprints to participate in the Rap Back program, which determines continuing suitability or fitness for a permit, license or employment. Agencies in the program must notify applicants and employees subject to a criminal history check that their fingerprints will be retained by the bureau and the FBI, and must notify them of the Rap Back program itself. The bureau also cooperates with the identification bureaus of other states and the United States in a complete interstate, national and international system of criminal identification, and sends the prints of persons arrested or sought in West Virginia to the federal bureau and other states for law enforcement.
Qualified agencies under the National Child Protection Act
The State Police publish a list of qualified NCPA/VCA agencies, the organizations approved under the National Child Protection Act and the Volunteers for Children Act to obtain national fingerprint based checks on the people who serve children, the elderly and people with disabilities through them. The list as read names Volunteer WV, the American Red Cross, the City of Charleston, the Energy Express AmeriCorps program of the WVU Extension Service, Fairmont State GEAR UP, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College and WV GEAR UP, the MOVRC and Council of the Southern Mountains Foster Grandparent Programs, Ohio West Virginia YMCA Camp Horseshoe, High Rocks Educational Corporation, the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area, LifeBridge AmeriCorps, the Brooke County Committee on Aging, Starlight Behavioral Health Services, The Education Alliance and Playmates Preschools and Child Development Centers.
Expungement: the State Police procedure
The Criminal Records page defines an expungement as the removal of criminal charges from a person's criminal record and lays out its three steps. The person first submits to a background check, as above, to determine whether the charges are on file with the State Police; then contacts the circuit clerk of the county of jurisdiction where the arrest originated; and finally petitions the circuit court, on forms available through the court system and filed with the circuit court. When the expungement is complete, the State Police Criminal Records section sends a certified letter to the circuit clerk's office notifying the clerk that the record has been expunged; the section takes no status calls, and all communication runs through the circuit clerk.
Expungement: the court's rules
The petition the State Police send a person to file is governed by W. Va. Code 61-11-26. A person convicted of a misdemeanor, or of a nonviolent felony or felonies arising from the same transaction, may petition the circuit court of conviction to expunge the conviction and its records, but not before the waiting period runs: one year after conviction, release from incarceration or the end of supervision for a misdemeanor, whichever is later, two years after the last conviction for multiple misdemeanors, and five years for a nonviolent felony. The section excludes felonies of violence against the person, misdemeanors of intentional injury to a minor or a law enforcement officer, felonies against a minor, sexual offenses under 61-8B, offenses with a deadly weapon, domestic battery and assault against a spouse, co parent or cohabitant, driving under the influence, and other listed crimes, though a DUI conviction at least five years old does not block an unrelated expungement. The verified petition lists every name and alias, every address since the offense, the arrest date, court and case number, the statutes and offenses, any victims and protective orders, the disposition and sentence, the grounds such as employment or licensure, the steps taken toward rehabilitation and any earlier expungement, and is served on the Superintendent of the State Police, the prosecuting attorney, the arresting agency's chief, the corrections institution and the court that disposed of the charge, with the prosecutor mailing it to identified victims; any of them may file a notice of opposition within 30 days, the petitioner may reply within 30 days, and the petitioner must prove by clear and convincing evidence that these are the only convictions for the offense, the time has run, no charges are pending, expungement is consistent with the public welfare and the petitioner has been rehabilitated and is law abiding.
Reading a West Virginia result
A West Virginia background check is a fingerprint identification taken by IdentoGO and answered by the Criminal Identification Bureau from the prints and dispositions the arresting officers, jails and courts are required to send it; nothing reaches an employer, landlord or licensing board without the subject's signed authorization, and the prints stay on file for Rap Back when the agency is enrolled. A charge that ended in acquittal can leave the file for a first time arrestee on proof to the department, and a conviction leaves it only through the circuit court's expungement order, which the State Police confirm to the clerk by certified letter.
Questions about background checks in West Virginia
Related West Virginia records
The State Police record is one of the West Virginia records this site covers: the West Virginia court records guide explains the circuit clerks' case files, the arrest records guide covers what an arrest makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the State Police registry, and the West Virginia county pages list each sheriff and circuit clerk.