The State Police Bureau of Identification page of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection splits the public into two counters. The Fingerprint Identification Unit takes appointments only, Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4 pm, for a $15 rolling fee; the Criminal Records Unit takes nothing in person. All requests for criminal history go by mail to 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457, and the page says in capitals not to email or fax them, that only fingerprinting is honored by appointment, and that drop off and pick up are not accepted. Every fee is paid separately, by check, money order or exact cash, and a request whose fees do not match the schedule is returned.
The schedule itself is in the bureau's rate notice effective October 1, 2026. Under C.G.S. 29-11 a name search costs $36 and produces a yes or no record indicator letter; to receive the full record behind a yes, a subsequent request must be filed with the statutory $75 fee. A personal record search on yourself is $75 and returns the full record if there is one. A criminal history record information search on any other individual is $75, a fingerprint supported search with a full set of prints is $75, and a letter of good conduct under C.G.S. 54-142p, for entering the United States or a foreign country, is $75 and must come with fingerprints. What changed on October 1, 2026 is the federal piece: the FBI search for authorized purposes went from $12 to $15, and from $10 to $13 for volunteers, although the bureau page itself still printed $13.25 for a federal check on October 15, 2026, so the two official pages disagree and the notice is the newer one. The notice also says each service can be requested through the CT Criminal History Request System online portal, called CCHRS, where fees adjust automatically, a route the bureau page does not mention. Local police departments, listed on the Connecticut town pages, also roll fingerprints.
- $36 then $75: the name search tells you only that a record exists; the record itself needs a second request and the $75 statutory fee.
- Mail or portal: the bureau page accepts criminal history requests by U.S. mail alone, on form DPS-0846-C, with each fee in a separate exact payment to Treasurer, State of CT; the rate notice adds the CT Criminal History Request System portal as a second route.
- October 1, 2026: the FBI rate rose to $15, and to $13 for volunteers; the state rates did not change.
- Ten years: the Judicial Branch conviction search shows a conviction for no more than ten years after sentencing, and removes it a month before the deadline.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Connecticut's own systems: the State Police Bureau of Identification page of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, the bureau's rate change notice effective October 1, 2026, form DPS-0846-C, the Connecticut criminal history record request form, the Judicial Branch criminal and motor vehicle case look up page, the Judicial Branch pending criminal and motor vehicle search by defendant, the Judicial Branch search for violation of probation and failure to appear warrants, the Department of Correction inmate information search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Filling in DPS-0846-C
Form DPS-0846-C offers three boxes. The first is the Connecticut only search by name and date of birth at $36, which the form itself says will only provide the existence of a record and not the actual record. The second is the Connecticut only criminal conviction history record search at $75, a name and date of birth search that provides a copy only if a record exists. The third is the same search by fingerprint at $75, with the note that fingerprinting at a State Police location costs $15.
The requester gives a name, address and telephone number, and if an email address is written in, the results go solely by email. Each subject needs a separate form, one check can cover several subjects, and alias or maiden names and other dates of birth go on the lines provided.
The form's own disclaimer explains what the search is: state of Connecticut criminal conviction history record information only, based on name and date of birth or a fingerprint card, which may change daily because of erasures, corrections and pardons, so the department vouches for it only as of the date it is disclosed. That is the state police file. A different form, DPS-181-C, is required for a letter of good conduct used with a visa, immigration or a foreign adoption, and the bureau says DPS-0846-C is not to be used for those purposes.
Who else can be fingerprinted, and what it costs
Fingerprinting for a criminal record check must be done by a law enforcement agency, and the bureau accepts prints rolled at a local police department as well as its own. Its own appointments require the booking confirmation, the pre enrollment confirmation with tracking number and barcode, and a government photo ID from a list that runs from a state license or learner permit and a United States or foreign passport to a permanent resident card, an employment authorization card, a merchant mariner card and a Canadian driver license.
The federal criminal history check is available only where a state statute or federal act authorizes it, so a private person cannot add the $15 FBI search to a personal request. The Connecticut background check guide covers the employers and licensing boards that can.
The ten year conviction window on the court website
The Judicial Branch runs its own public search, and it works on different rules from the state police. The criminal and motor vehicle case look up page states that conviction information is generally shown on the website for no more than ten years after the date of sentencing, or for a shorter period where Section 7-13 of the Connecticut Practice Book sets one, and that the entry is removed one month before the end of that period.
Every criminal and motor vehicle charge convicted in the past ten years is listed, including convictions that arise from an unvacated forfeiture of bail in a motor vehicle case, while bail forfeitures in other cases, youthful offender cases, juvenile cases, infractions and violations are not shown. The branch warns that what it shows may change daily because of erasures, corrections and pardons.
Alongside the conviction search by defendant or docket number sit the daily docket by court or defendant, the pending case search, and an attorney case look up. The pending case search takes the first two letters of a last name, an optional first initial, a birth year with a plus or minus range, a court location from Bridgeport to Waterbury, and a category of criminal, motor vehicle or referred for license suspension, and it stamps each page with the time its data was current, 5:14 am on October 15, 2026 when read.
Outstanding warrants that the public may see
The branch publishes one class of warrant. Its warrant search covers violation of probation warrants, orders to incarcerate and disclosable failure to appear warrants, searchable by last name, town, court location or any combination, with first name, birth year and a year range optional. The page says it does not contain information on all types of warrants, is for informational purposes only, and that no one should attempt to take action against anyone based on it.
A warrant is left off when posting it might endanger someone's safety or when it was issued in a youthful offender proceeding. An arrest warrant for a new offense, as opposed to a probation or appearance matter, is not on this list, and the clerk of the court is the contact for anything further.
Erasure and Clean Slate
Connecticut erases rather than seals. The bureau page links the Clean Slate materials: a full list of offenses eligible for Clean Slate erasure, a hearing form for Clean Slate erasure, and the state's Clean Slate website, with the caution that some listed offenses may still be ineligible, giving the example of an assault conviction designated as a family violence crime, and sending readers to C.G.S. 54-142a for the governing text.
That statute is the same one behind the erasure of records in cases that ended without a conviction, which is why the state police and the court both warn that their files change daily through erasures. A person who believes an erased or dismissed case still shows should start with the $75 personal record search, which returns the full file as the bureau holds it.
People in custody, including those not yet tried
The Department of Correction search takes a CT DOC inmate number or a last name, with first name and date of birth optional, and it carries a warning that matters for arrest research: Connecticut's correctional system holds people awaiting trial, so a current incarceration does not mean a conviction. Release dates can move with Risk Reduction Earned Credits, the department's system cannot show every statute subsection, people held under the Youthful Offender statute or for federal immigration authorities are left out, and a location beginning with PO and a number means supervision by a parole officer at a regional office.
Questions go to the Public Information Office at 24 Wolcott Hill Road, Wethersfield, 860-692-7780. Connecticut has no county jails, so the state search is the custody lookup, as the Connecticut inmate search guide explains.
The arrest report at the police department
The bureau page is clear that it is not the place for State Police incident reports, which have their own page, and a municipal arrest report comes from the town police department under the Freedom of Information Act described in the Connecticut public records law guide. The state file is the conviction history; the local file holds the arrest narrative and booking photograph until an erasure order reaches it. Registered sex offenders, who are not marked on the DPS-0846-C result, are searchable through the public registry covered in the Connecticut sex offender registry guide.
Questions about Connecticut arrest records
Related Connecticut records
Connecticut readers can move on to the Connecticut background check guide for fingerprint checks and the employers allowed the federal search, the Connecticut inmate search guide for the unified correctional system, the Connecticut sex offender registry guide, the Connecticut public records law guide for police reports, and the Connecticut town pages for every local department.