District of Columbia People Search: Two Court Systems for One Courthouse, an Inmate Records Line and a Business Search by Person

Written by SearchSystems.net from District of Columbia's own systems: the District of Columbia Courts, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, the Board of Elections, DC Health, the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants, the District's FOIA page, each read on October 13, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

The Superior Court: Portal for civil, eAccess for the rest

The District of Columbia Superior Court's case search page, last updated February 13, 2026 when read, divides online cases between two systems. The Portal covers the Civil Division, including landlord and tenant and small claims cases, and civil cases in the Tax Division, and the court says most case information there can be viewed anonymously without registration or sign in, best in Google Chrome. eAccess covers criminal cases in the Tax Division and the Domestic Violence Division, with the full list of available case types on page 2 of the eAccess User Guide; criminal citation cases are not available online, and the court date for one comes from the police district that issued the citation. Questions go to the division handling the case or to EOCommunications at dccsystem.gov, with one to two business days for a first reply.

The court's disclaimer explains what the systems hold: docket information for most cases and document images in some, available within minutes of being entered into the court record, with occasional inaccurate or outdated entries because of update cycles and quality reviews, and no warranty of accuracy. Multi page document images open fully in Windows Photo Viewer rather than the Windows Photo application. The court sits at the Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, general information 202-879-1010.

The Department of Corrections: a records line, not a lookup

The District's Department of Corrections does not publish an online inmate search. Its Locate an Inmate page says general inmate information is obtained by contacting the department's Records Office at (202) 523-7060. A victim who has a DC Department of Corrections inmate ID number, a Metropolitan Police Department identification number known as a PDID, the inmate's full name or the court case number can receive automated updates on inmate movements by registering with VINE, Victim Information and Notification Everyday, at 1 (877) 329-7894. The department's offices are at 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 2nd Floor, Washington 20019, (202) 698-4932, weekdays 8 am to 5 pm.

The sex offender registry and the police clearance

The District's sex offender registry site answered SearchSystems with its title and no text, so its search terms are on the site. The Metropolitan Police Department's Police Clearances page, run by the Arrest and Criminal History Section, carried its heading alone when read, so the terms of a clearance are on that page; a police clearance is a document about the person requesting it, not a public lookup of someone else.

Licenses by name, and businesses by person

The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection's Occupational and Professional License Search takes a license number, a licensee name, a license status, a discipline flag, a license type and a date range, so a name alone returns the occupational and professional licenses the department has issued under it. Health professions are licensed separately by DC Health, whose licensure lookup, the department says, is drawn directly from the Health Regulation and Licensing Administration's database, updated daily and considered a primary source.

For businesses, the department's online resources page describes BOSS Global Search as the way to verify a business license, searchable by business or person name, address or license number, since every business operating in the District must be licensed; it suggests it for checking whether a landlord is licensed. Corporate entities, domestic and foreign, are formed and registered through CorpOnline, and trade names are registered the same way. BOSS itself loads as an application, so what each record shows is set on the site.

Voter registration: your own record

The Board of Elections' Check Your Voter Registration Status asks for a first name, last name and date of birth plus the last four digits of a Social Security number, DMV issued ID number or voter ID number, which the board says it needs to locate the record; anyone without them is directed to the board at 202-727-2525. The page notes that a date of birth was not required before the 1984 Voter Validation Process, and tells voters registered before then who cannot find their record to enter 01/01/1880 as the date of birth. The identifiers make it a check of one's own registration rather than a search for other voters.

Vital records on Shannon Place

The DC Health Vital Records Division is at 2201 Shannon Place SE, Washington, DC 20020, with walk up services Monday and Tuesday and Thursday and Friday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, and appointments required for domestic partnership registration, domestic partner termination and acknowledgment of paternity. The office is reached from the Anacostia Metro station on the Green Line and the C11, C15, C23, C31, C41 and C51 buses. Its shipping notice says the division is responsible for an order from payment until the package is handed to USPS or UPS, after which claims go to the carrier. Who may obtain a certificate, and at what fee, is set out in the division's ordering pages.

Unclaimed property, the ACP and the FOIA

DC Unclaimed Property answered with its title only. The Address Confidentiality Program, administered by the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants, gives eligible residents an authorization card with a substitute address that every District agency must accept in place of a real home, work or school address, and forwards their first class, certified and registered mail; it does not redact personal information already public and does not bind non government bodies. Eligibility requires fear for one's safety, residence in the District, and experience of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking, or employment with an organization serving those victims or focused on reproductive healthcare, together with a recent or planned move or steps already taken to keep the address out of public records. Applications go through application assistants at agencies across the District; the office is at 899 North Capitol Street NE, Suite 4100, (202) 727-0605.

The District's Freedom of Information Act, DC Code sections 2-531 through 2-539, gives any person the right to request access to records, and all public bodies of the District government must disclose public records except those protected by the exemptions in section 2-534, naming the exemption whenever something is withheld. The Act does not require an agency to do research, analyze data, answer written questions or create records; it requires a reasonable effort to locate records that already exist.

The District: Portal, eAccess and the inmate records line

A District search runs through the Superior Court first, where a name in the Portal returns civil suits, evictions and small claims with their documents, and eAccess returns domestic violence and criminal tax matters. The records office answers custody by phone, the registry answers registration, the license search and BOSS tie the name to a license or a business, and DC Health confirms births and deaths for those entitled to the certificate. Deeds and assessments are at the Recorder of Deeds and the Office of Tax and Revenue, listed on the District of Columbia pages at SearchSystems.

The paid people search reports sold on District residents are compiled from these sources and from nothing the Metropolitan Police would release about a third party; the Portal and the Recorder of Deeds are where their claims are checked.

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