Alabama is one of the states where the central repository will not answer a stranger's question. The Alabama Background Check page of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency offers two things: a secure web system, called ABC, through which qualifying employers subscribe to see the most current Alabama criminal records of current and prospective employees, and, for what it calls public background check purposes, the Application to Review Alabama Criminal History Record Information. The second is the only product an individual can buy, and it is a review of your own file. The applicant must be fingerprinted, provide a copy of a current photo ID, complete the application and pay $25 by money order or cashier's check, with each additional copy $5, in person at 301 South Ripley Street in Montgomery, on the Adams Avenue side, or by mail to PO Box 1511, Montgomery, AL 36102-1511.
The unit behind the counter is described on the Criminal Records Identification Unit page. Its Criminal History Section maintains the fingerprint files for all arrested offenders in Alabama, and for deceased persons, and its Automated Fingerprint Identification Services section stores and matches the prints, so every entry in the repository is tied to a set of fingerprints taken at booking rather than to a name typed by a clerk. That is why the application cannot be completed on a name alone. Where the public does get a name search is the court system, through Alacourt, and in each county through the sheriff or police department, which the Alabama county pages list.
- $25 plus $5: the administrative fee for reviewing your own record, by money order or cashier's check only, and the price of each extra copy.
- Two witnesses or a notary: the application is not accepted unless the signature was witnessed by two people or sworn before a notary public.
- One year to challenge: the Appendix A challenge form must come back to ALEA within a year of the record being provided, with the arresting agency or court documents attached.
- $5,000 to $10,000: the fine under Section 41-9-601 for willfully obtaining or sharing criminal offender record information under false pretenses, with up to five years in the penitentiary.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alabama's own systems: the ALEA Alabama Background Check page, the ALEA Criminal Records Identification Unit page, ALEA CJIS Form 46, the Application to Review or Challenge Alabama Criminal History Record Information, the ALEA criminal record expungement page, the Alacourt court records access home page, the Alacourt terms of use, the Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What Form 46 asks for
ALEA CJIS Form 46, revised March 8, 2023, is a release as much as an application. The personal section takes the full name, aliases, address, Social Security number, date of birth, driver license number and state, race and three telephone numbers; a work section takes the employer, contractor or state agency, the job role and a supervisor's name. The checklist that follows is where most rejected applications fail: a completed application signed by the applicant and two witnesses or notarized, a copy of a valid photo ID, a classifiable copy of the applicant's own fingerprints taken by an authorized law enforcement agency, and, for personal requests only, the $25 administrative fee payable to the ALEA Criminal Records and Identification Unit.
Applicants for state employment, licensure or certification are told to check that agency's own fee requirements instead.
The affidavit the applicant signs authorizes ALEA to release any and all criminal history information to the named requesting agency or authorized agent, and it is wider than the state file: it covers information held by both ALEA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and anything about past record and character, financial, academic, military, employment, judicial or personal reference. Directly above the signature line sits the warning from Section 41-9-601 of the Code of Alabama 1975, that any person who willfully requests, obtains or seeks to obtain criminal offender record information under false pretenses, or who willfully communicates it to an agency or person without authorization, may be guilty of a felony, fined not less than $5,000 nor more than $10,000, imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.
The same page records the applicant's right under 28 CFR 16.34 to challenge any part of the state or federal record.
Challenging what the record says
Appendix A of the same form is the Application to Challenge, and it carries its own instruction not to use it for expungements. A challenge must be returned to the Criminal Records and Identification Unit at PO Box 1511, Montgomery, AL 36102-1511, marked for Record Challenge, no later than one year after the record was provided; after that date a new request to review must be filed under the procedure set by the Alabama Justice Information Commission.
The applicant lists each arrest or disposition being challenged with its date, agency and charge, explains why each is inaccurate, states what the correct information is and where it came from, and attaches the official documents from the arresting agency or court. ALEA reviews the challenge and may send it to the originating agency that has custody of the entry, a process the form warns may take several weeks or longer.
Employers, the ABC system and the penalty for misuse
Qualifying employers do not fill in Form 46 for each hire. They subscribe to the Alabama Background Check System, a secure web based site that the background check page says gives access to the most up to date, comprehensive Alabama criminal records available for current and prospective employees. ALEA can be reached about the program at 1-866-740-4762 or 334-676-7897, Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm Central time. The page states that all transactions are monitored and logged and that unauthorized or improper use will be aggressively prosecuted, repeating that anyone who willingly obtains offender record information under false pretenses faces felony penalties.
The Alabama background check guide explains which employers qualify and what the subscription involves.
The court record search that does take a name
The public search that Alabama offers by name is a court search, not a police one. Alacourt Access covers criminal, civil, small claims, state traffic, domestic relations and child support records from the state court system. A name search costs $9.99 and includes one case detail report, with each further case detail $9.99; a case number search is $9.99 with the detail included; document images are $5 for the first 20 pages and 50 cents a page after that, which the terms of use describe as the state mandated copying price.
A search that returns no matching records is still a billed search. Case monitoring, which emails the subscriber whenever the case action summary changes for the life of the case, costs $19.99 for a district court case and $29.99 for a circuit court case.
A case detail report shows the basic case information, court actions and rulings, case status, setting dates, party information, financial history and the case action summary. The terms add two things a researcher should know: a purchased detail is a snapshot as of the date viewed, kept in the customer history for at least 30 days, and updating it costs another search fee; and the case is treated as complete 42 days after the court enters a court action date. Volume users are pointed to the subscription service at alacourt.com rather than the pay per search site.
Who is in prison, and who is not shown
The Department of Corrections inmate search takes an AIS number or a name and returns race, sex, birth year and institution. The AIS number, the six digit Alabama Institutional Serial number assigned to each inmate, takes precedence in any search, and the name field runs an open ended match, so a few letters return every inmate whose name begins with them. The database holds only people currently incarcerated; the department states that historical data is not available online, and the search and population totals leave out inmates sentenced under the Youthful Offender Act.
On October 15, 2026 the page reported 27,625 inmates, 25,032 of them men. County jail rosters are a separate matter kept by each sheriff, and the Alabama inmate search guide covers both.
Expungement goes through a court, after a trip to ALEA
ALEA's expungement page is short and firm: the Code of Alabama 1975, Section 15-27, allows the expungement of criminal records in certain circumstances, an Alabama court grants expungements, not ALEA, and the agency cannot advise beyond what the page offers. It does set one precondition. Before filing, the petitioner must first obtain a certified copy of the criminal history record from ALEA, which means the fingerprinted Form 46 review described above.
The Petition for Expungement of Records itself, with its instructions, is published by the Alabama Office of Administrative Courts. Form 46 adds the reminder that its challenge appendix is not for expungements, so a petitioner has two separate documents to manage: the ALEA record that proves what is on file, and the court petition that asks to remove it.
Local arrest records and the sheriff
The fingerprint card that reaches Montgomery starts in a county jail or city lockup. Alabama's 67 sheriffs and the municipal police departments book arrestees, hold them before first appearance, and keep the incident and booking records that a requester asks for under the state public records law described in the Alabama public records law guide. The ALEA repository holds the summary, tied to those prints, and releases it only as described above; the arrest report and mugshot stay with the agency that made the arrest.
For the registry of convicted sex offenders, which is public and searchable by name and address, see the Alabama sex offender registry guide.
Questions about Alabama arrest records
Related Alabama records
Readers working through an Alabama record can continue with the Alabama background check guide for the employer subscription system, the Alabama inmate search guide for prison and jail custody, the Alabama sex offender registry guide, the Alabama public records law guide for incident reports, and the Alabama county pages for each sheriff's office.