Iowa declares its prison records public by statute and says so on the search page, publishes its sex offender registry with an alias search, and keeps a business database that holds officers and directors as well as company names. Its criminal history check site was offline when read, with a replacement under construction and no date. Vital records go back to 1880 and cost $20 a search whether or not a record is found.
The order to use: Iowa Courts Online for cases, the offender search for custody, the registry for status with aliases checked, the business entities search for companies and the Board of Medicine for physicians, then the county recorder, who in Iowa is also the local registrar of births, deaths and marriages, for certificates and property.
- Courts: Iowa Courts Online, the Judicial Branch's case search.
- In custody: the Department of Corrections offender search, public under Iowa Code 904.601(1), updated weekly.
- Registered offenders: the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, by name with aliases, or by ZIP code.
- Companies and physicians: the Secretary of State's Business Entities Search and the Board of Medicine lookup.
- Certificates and money: the Bureau of Health Statistics and the county recorders, and the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Iowa's own systems: the Iowa Judicial Branch, the Iowa Department of Corrections, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa Secretary of State, Iowa Health and Human Services, the Iowa Public Information Board, the Department of Public Safety criminal history site, each read on October 13, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Iowa Courts Online
The Iowa Judicial Branch's case search is Iowa Courts Online, which answered SearchSystems with its title and no text, while the branch's court records page at iowacourts.gov returned not found. The search is the state's official index of court cases, and its fields, coverage and any disclaimer are set on the application itself. For records kept at the courthouse, the Iowa county pages at SearchSystems list each county's clerk of court.
The offender search: public by statute, updated weekly
The Iowa Department of Corrections' Search Offenders page opens by stating that offender records are public information under section 904.601(1) of the Iowa Code, then disclaims any warranty of accuracy and any liability for completeness. The search takes a first, middle and last name, an offender number, a location, an offense and a county of commitment, and the department says the information is updated weekly, may change quickly, and, because of data conversion issues, may not always be the latest or most complete. A daily statistics page sits alongside the search.
The registry: name, aliases and ZIP code
The Iowa Sex Offender Registry, established in July 1995 at the Division of Criminal Investigation as the central repository for registration records under Chapter 692A, searches registrants by last name and first name, with a checkbox to also search aliases, or by ZIP code. The site adds a most wanted list, notifications and watches, and bulletins, and its staff maintain the records and help law enforcement enforce registration compliance. The alias box is the one to tick: a registrant known by another name surfaces only with it.
Companies: 600,000 entities, with officers and directors
The Secretary of State's Business Entities Search help page describes a database of every business that has incorporated in Iowa: over 600,000 entities, active and inactive, over one million filings, and additional information on stock, addresses, previous names, agents, officers and directors, plus registered trademarks. A name search strips noise words such as THE and AN from the front and CORPORATION or INC from the end, a business number search avoids excess results, and searches return at most 1,000 results; customer service is at 515-281-5204. The search itself answered an automated read with a wall, so whether an officer's name can be searched directly is a question for the form; the help page confirms that officers and directors are in the record once an entity is opened.
Physicians at the Board of Medicine
The Board of Medicine's online services require a registered Enterprise A and A account for most functions, but not for filing a complaint or for finding a physician, acupuncturist or genetic counselor, which anyone can do to check licensure status. A license number search needs the letter prefix and a hyphen, MD-number for medical doctors and DO-0 with a leading zero for osteopathic physicians.
Voters, Safe at Home and unclaimed property
The Secretary of State's voter registration lookup answered an automated read with a wall, as did Safe at Home, the office's address confidentiality program, so both are named here without description; the office's voter registration page sets out who may register, including the rule that a convicted felon may not vote unless voting rights have been restored. The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt, the state's unclaimed property search, answered with its title only.
Births, deaths and marriages since 1880, at $20 a search
Iowa Health and Human Services' Bureau of Health Statistics holds all vital events in the state, registered since July 1, 1880, about 100,000 events a year with about 85,000 certified copies issued, and the original records are on file with the bureau while local registrars in the county recorders' offices keep the records of events in their county. County registrars do not hold single parent births before July 1, 1995, records after a legal name change, delayed records filed a year or more after the event, sealed records, or any birth, death or marriage record from 1921 to 1941. At both the county and state level a $20.00 fee is required for each record search, with a copy issued if the record is found and a no record letter if it is not, and the fee is not refundable. Applications must be in writing, identify the record, prove entitlement and carry a government issued photo ID; entitled persons are the person named, their spouse, children, legal parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, or legal representative or guardian. Administrative processing fees at the state level have been $15 since July 1, 2019. The office is at Lucas State Office Building, 1st Floor, 321 E. 12th Street, Des Moines, 515-281-4944.
The no record letter is the people search angle: for $20 the state will say in writing whether a birth, death or marriage is on file.
The Public Information Board, and the offline criminal history check
The Iowa Public Information Board rules on complaints under the state's open records and open meetings laws and publishes its orders and advisory opinions; when read, its recent opinions included one on changes to notice requirements, confidentiality exceptions and injunctions against vexatious requestors, and it was running training for newly elected officials. The Department of Public Safety's Iowa Criminal History Record Check site said it was offline: a new website is being developed, the upgrade requires extensive downtime, no date is known, and in the meantime requests go by mail or fax through the DPS criminal history page. A name check from the state, when the site returns, is the state's own record of Iowa arrests and convictions.
Iowa: open offender records and $20 searches
Iowa's free lookups settle custody and registration, the business database connects a name to companies as officer or agent, and Iowa Courts Online carries the cases. For a certificate or a no record letter the county recorder is the local registrar as well as the keeper of deeds, so one office answers two questions; the Iowa county pages at SearchSystems list each recorder and assessor.
Paid people search reports on Iowans are assembled from these same public records, none of them the state criminal history, whose own site was offline when this guide was written.
County Starting Points
Questions about finding someone in Iowa
Every Iowa Guide
The full set: arrest records, background checks, inmate search, offender registry, birth certificates, unclaimed property, business search, and the Iowa records law that opens every door on this list.