Most states let only employers with a statute behind them see a stranger's record. Alaska does not. The Department of Public Safety background checks page opens with AS 12.62.160, which authorizes any person to receive Alaska criminal justice information, and it prices the service at $20 for a name search and $35 for a fingerprint search. The Criminal Records and Identification Bureau at 5700 East Tudor Road in Anchorage keeps the repository, known as APSIN, the Alaska Public Safety Information Network, and every arresting agency, prosecutor and court in the state is required to report its events there. What the any person report leaves out matters as much as what it shows: it carries past convictions, current offender information and the identification data, but not arrests that ended without a conviction.
Those nonconviction entries appear on two other versions of the same record. The subject can view or buy everything on file, including nonconviction information, sealed information and correctional treatment information where it exists. An interested person, defined in AS 12.62.900(18) as someone who employs, appoints or permits a person to serve in a position with supervisory or disciplinary power over a minor or dependent adult, receives nonconviction information as well. The bureau warns that a name search can miss history filed under an alias, which is why it recommends fingerprints, and that fingerprints must be on a standard FD-258 card, since prints on other paper stock or at other sizes are rejected. For a county by county view, see the Alaska borough and city pages.
- $20, $35 and $5: a name based report costs $20, a fingerprint based report $35, and an extra copy requested with the original $5; a later copy is a new $20 request.
- Any person: AS 12.62.160 lets anyone receive past conviction and current offender information without citing a statute; the bureau's form for a request about another person still carries that person's signed authorization.
- Beyond a reasonable doubt: the only grounds for sealing under AS 12.62.180 are mistaken identity or false accusation, and the Commissioner decides.
- 60 days: AS 22.35.030 takes an acquitted or fully dismissed case off the court system's public website 60 days after the acquittal or dismissal.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alaska's own systems: the Alaska Department of Public Safety background checks page, the State of Alaska criminal history report portal, the Request to Seal Criminal Justice Information form, the Alaska Court System search cases page, the CourtView online information page of the Alaska Court System, the Alaska Department of Corrections home page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Three versions of one record
The bureau's own questions and answers list what each requester gets. The report sold to any person contains past conviction information, current offender information and criminal identification information, meaning fingerprints, photographs and descriptions that tie a person to an arrest or prosecution. The report released to an interested person adds nonconviction information and correctional treatment information if available.
The report released to the subject adds sealed information on top of that. A fourth category covers requesters whose authority comes from another state or federal statute; they must send the citation and full text of that statute with the request, and the bureau releases whatever it authorizes.
The definition that drives all of this sits in AS 12.62.900(8): criminal history record information means past conviction information, current offender information and the identification data that marks a person as having been the subject of an arrest or prosecution. Nonconviction information is the category an arrest falls into when the prosecutor declines the charge or the court dismisses it, and the any person report does not carry it.
The bureau adds one more point for employers: approval by the United States Attorney General is required before a national FBI check can be run, and national results may be released only to government agencies, so a private employer must name a government agency that will review the results or give the bureau a list of disqualifying criteria and let it report whether the record contains any.
Ordering online, by mail or at a walk in counter
The name based portal starts with an email address, sends a secure link, and then asks for a Social Security number plus an Alaska driver license number or a Division of Motor Vehicles identification number to verify identity. Without those documents, or if you would rather not type them into a website, the portal points you to the in person or mail options. On October 15, 2026 the portal carried a notice that it was experiencing delays due to scheduled maintenance and that requests might take longer than usual. Every initial report is $20 and each additional copy $5.
In person requests go to an approved walk in location, which the department says includes most of its own offices and many local police departments, with two forms of photo identification, one government issued and the other showing the full legal name; payment methods vary by location, and most take cash, check or money order. Mail requests go to the department's Applicant Records Unit with the completed form and payment in cash, check or money order; incomplete forms or forms without payment are returned.
A third party request requires the subject to sign the consent portion of the form and the unsworn falsification statement at the bottom. Mailed results can be posted or faxed but not both unless an extra copy is bought.
Client numbers for employers and licensing boards
Agencies and businesses that run checks routinely get a client number from the bureau, which helps it release the right level of information. The request is a letter on the organization's stationery giving the name and nature of the business, its physical and mailing addresses, the purpose for which it wants criminal justice information, a contact name and telephone number, and the state or federal statute that authorizes it to receive the information.
If the authority is anything other than AS 12.62.160, the letter must include the citation and the full text of the statute. Letters go to the Criminal Records and Identification Bureau at 5700 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99507, or by fax to 907-269-5091, and the bureau writes back with the client number and instructions. Employers checking someone who will work with children or vulnerable adults should read the Alaska background check guide, which covers the interested person route in more depth.
Sealing a false accusation or a case of mistaken identity
Alaska has no general expungement statute for arrests that simply ended without a conviction. What it has is AS 12.62.180, reproduced in full on the request to seal form: a person may ask the head of the agency that maintains the information to seal entries that, beyond a reasonable doubt, resulted from mistaken identity or false accusation. The decision of the agency head is the final administrative decision, and an appeal to court must show the decision was clearly mistaken; the appeal cannot be used to attack the underlying judgment.
Once sealed, the person may deny the existence of the arrest, charge, conviction or sentence, and the information may be released only for record management and auditing, criminal justice employment, review by the subject, research, preventing imminent harm, or a use allowed by statute or court order.
The form itself is a six part packet. Part three asks the applicant to explain the circumstances and show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the charge came from mistaken identity or a false accusation. Part four requires documents from the agencies involved: evidence that the charge was dismissed or ended in acquittal for that reason, or, where there was a conviction, evidence that it was overturned by a court or pardoned by the Governor on that ground.
The bureau may ask for a full set of fingerprints to process the request, and the Commissioner of Public Safety signs the decision in part six. The Commissioner can seal only records that originated in Alaska, not those of other states or the federal government, and the regulation at 13 AAC 68.205 requires the repository to note on the record that it was sealed and the date of the order.
What CourtView shows and what it quietly removes
The court system's search cases page leads with a notice that a search of court case records is not a criminal history records check of a person, that some case records never appear on CourtView, and that some are removed after a time set by statute, rule or order; anyone wanting a complete, official criminal history report is sent to the Department of Public Safety. Trial court cases from the superior and district courts, including tickets and citations, are searched and paid through one link, and appellate cases through another.
The removals are spelled out on the CourtView information page. Under AS 22.35.030 the court system may not publish a criminal case on a public website once 60 days have passed from an acquittal on all charges, a dismissal of all charges that was not part of a plea agreement in another case, or an acquittal on some charges with the rest dismissed. Administrative Rule 40(a) also pulls cases dismissed at the first hearing for lack of evidence or a charging error, cases where a suspended imposition of sentence was completed and the conviction set aside under AS 12.55.085, separately charged underage alcohol offenses, and convictions for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana by someone 21 or older with no other conviction in the case.
Qualifying cases are supposed to drop off automatically, but the court admits some are missed, and form TF-810 filed with the court where the case was heard is the way to report one.
Custody, clemency and the jail side
The Department of Corrections runs the state's institutions, pretrial and sentenced electronic monitoring, and a Find an Inmate link alongside its victim notification service, VINE; its quick links also include a population dashboard and the 2025 Standards of Jail Operations. The department's clemency answers are worth reading before anyone assumes a pardon cleans a record: there are no fees, no attorney is needed, applications go to the Alaska Board of Parole at 550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1800, Anchorage, or by email, but no form of clemency will expunge, remove or clear an offense from a criminal record.
Anyone who applied between 2006 and 2018 must reapply, or the earlier request is deemed denied. The Alaska inmate search guide explains how to find a person in custody, and the sex offender registry guide covers the separate public registry.
Where the local record lives
Alaska has no county sheriffs; arrests are made by the Alaska State Troopers, municipal police departments and village public safety officers, and the booking record stays with the arresting agency while the summary goes to APSIN. The repository holds the statewide file, but the bureau notes that the court system keeps its own public databases and that the summary it maintains is confidential except as the statute allows. A request for the arrest report itself, as opposed to the criminal history, goes to the agency that made the arrest under the public records rules described in the Alaska public records law guide; the Department of Corrections has a public records request page for its own files.
Questions about Alaska arrest records
Related Alaska records
The same Anchorage bureau is behind the Alaska background check guide on this site; the Alaska inmate search guide covers people in Department of Corrections custody, the Alaska sex offender registry guide the public registry, the Alaska public records law guide the rules for agency reports, and the Alaska borough and city pages the local police and trooper posts.