The Delaware State Police page on obtaining a certified criminal history describes a single product: a certified criminal history report obtained through fingerprints, with identification shown at enrollment. The State Bureau of Identification partners with IdentoGO, operated by IDEMIA, for the capture, and the fee is $72 for a certified State of Delaware criminal history and $85 for a certified state and federal history, the latter only where a law mandates it. Every applicant registers with a service code supplied by the agency, employer or organization that asked for the check; without one, the bureau says to go back to that organization and get it, because a check run under the wrong code must be paid for and taken again. A private citizen who wants their own record uses code 27RVGT, and the bureau notes that this personal report will not satisfy an agency whose check is required by statute.
The mechanics changed this month. Beginning October 5, 2026 the bureau transitioned fingerprinting at all locations to IDEMIA's SMART-E kiosk, which replaces staff operated printing with a remote proctored process in which a trained agent assists and supervises the customer by audio and video. The bureau keeps two enrollment centers of its own, at 600 South Bay Road in Dover and 546 South Bedford Street in Georgetown, and partner locations across the state are found through the IdentoGO locator. Mail in service exists, but only through the scheduling site; mail sent to the offices themselves is warned of significant delays, since the locations do not accept it. The county and city police who make the arrests behind those records are listed on the Delaware county pages.
- $72 and $85: a certified State of Delaware criminal history, and a state plus federal history that must be mandated by law.
- Service code: every registration needs the code of the requesting organization; 27RVGT is the personal code and 27S8N2 the handgun permit to purchase code.
- October 5, 2026: the date every bureau location switched to the remote proctored SMART-E kiosk.
- One year: an arrest with no charge filed in any court within a year is a case terminated in your favor, and the bureau must expunge it on application.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Delaware's own systems: the Delaware State Police page on obtaining a certified criminal history, the Delaware Courts page on expungement and pardon of a criminal record, the Superior Court guide to expungement of an adult record, the Delaware Courts home page, the Delaware Department of Correction home page, the Department of Correction inmate locator page, the Delaware Freedom of Information Act request form, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Codes, cards and the apostille
Three service codes appear on the bureau page. The handgun qualified purchaser permit uses 27S8N2 and nothing else; the bureau says it will not accept another code for that purpose and the applicant would have to pay to be printed again. The personal certified Delaware criminal history uses 27RVGT and is issued only to the citizen who asks for it. A plain printed fingerprint card, with no background check attached, uses 1111G2 and costs $30.
Payment options are shown on the registration page, as are the accepted forms of identification. Someone who needs the report in a foreign country has an extra step: after the results arrive, they must bring them to the Dover office at 600 South Bay Road to be sealed further before sending them to the Division of Corporations for an apostille or authentication.
Mandatory expungement at the bureau
Delaware splits expungement in two, and the split is explained in the Superior Court's guide to expungement of an adult record, updated June 13, 2024. Subchapter VII of Chapter 43 of Title 11 governs. A mandatory expungement is handled by the State Bureau of Identification, not a court, and on application the bureau must expunge felonies, misdemeanors and violations under Titles 4, 7, 11, 16 and 23 in three situations. The first is a case terminated in the person's favor: an acquittal on all charges, a nolle prosequi on all charges, probation before judgment completed and discharged, dismissal of all charges, an acquittal on some with the rest dismissed, or an arrest after which no charges were filed in any court within one year.
The bureau must expunge such a case even if the person has other convictions that are ineligible. The state police page prices the bureau's side: the application costs $72 under service code 27S23V, the bureau then writes back saying whether the case qualifies as mandatory or discretionary, and a mandatory expungement needs the signed paperwork returned within 30 days with a $75 money order payable to the Delaware State Police.
The second is one or more violations in the same case after three years with no prior or subsequent convictions, and the third is misdemeanors or violations in one case after five years with no other convictions, unless the misdemeanor is on the exclusion list in Section 4373(b).
Some bars apply to any expungement: pending charges, except where the application concerns an arrest never charged within a year; a current term of incarceration, parole or probation; an expungement of a conviction within the previous ten years, which does not block a mandatory expungement of a case ended in your favor; a prior felony expungement when seeking another; and unpaid fines, fees or restitution, though a court can waive those or convert them to a civil judgment.
Title 21 motor vehicle offenses cannot be expunged apart from driving after judgment prohibited, reckless driving and operating a vehicle causing death.
Discretionary expungement in court
Anyone who does not fit the mandatory list may petition Superior Court, or Family Court if every charge was resolved there, in the county where the most recent case ended. The courts' expungement page publishes the Superior Court petition, instructions and order, the Family Court adult packet, and the juvenile packet, and notes that a case concluded in the Court of Common Pleas or the Justice of the Peace Court is filed with the Prothonotary in Superior Court.
The guide sets the waiting periods: three years from conviction or release for a misdemeanor not on the exclusion list, seven years for an excluded misdemeanor, and seven years for a single felony outside the violent, sexual and child protection categories, all with no other convictions. The court grants the petition if the continued existence and release of the record causes or may cause manifest injustice, meaning hardship such as trouble finding work or admission to a college or vocational program, not the facts of the arrest.
The Attorney General's 120 days
The Attorney General's Office receives every discretionary petition and has 120 days to file an answer; the petitioner then has 30 days to reply, and the court decides, often without a hearing. A petitioner may apply to the bureau for the mandatory part and to the court for the rest at the same time, or fold the mandatory case into the court petition under Section 4374(d)(2). A granted order shields all law enforcement and court records of the case, fingerprints and photographs included, so a later check through the bureau shows nothing.
A pardon, by contrast, forgives but does not remove the conviction, and the Board of Pardons has its own forms. The state program APEX helps with paperwork and pardon hearing preparation.
Court records: civil online, criminal at the clerk
The Delaware Courts site offers a civil case search, e filing, e payment of fines and traffic ticket payment, but no public online criminal docket for the Superior Court, the Court of Common Pleas or the Justice of the Peace Court; criminal case files are requested from the clerk of the court that heard the case under the judiciary's record access procedures. The site also warns about bogus phone calls and text messages making false claims about warrants, jury duty and tolls and demanding immediate action, a scam the Judiciary says is on the rise.
An arrest in Delaware begins in the Justice of the Peace Court for initial appearance, and the Delaware background check guide explains how employers combine the court record with the bureau's fingerprint report.
One prison system, five levels of custody
Delaware has no county jails. The Department of Correction describes a unified system in which every facility falls under state jurisdiction, with between 4,500 and 5,000 inmates and about 13,000 probationers, run on five levels: Level V for 24 hour incarceration, where jail means a sentence of a year or less, Level IV for work release, home confinement, residential drug treatment and violation of probation centers, and Levels III to I for intensive, standard and administrative supervision.
Its daily population summary separates pretrial detention from sentenced inmates, which is where an arrestee who has not made bail appears. The inmate locator page does not run a search of its own; it sends the public to VINELink, the online version of the national victim notification network, and notes that some Delaware inmates have been transferred to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections under a contract the page links. The Delaware inmate search guide walks through VINE for a Delaware name.
Police reports under the Freedom of Information Act
The arrest report, as opposed to the criminal history, is a public body record requested under 29 Del. C. Chapter 100 with the state's FOIA request form, which the Department of Correction and the State Police both point to. The form asks for the public body, the requester's contact details and a specific description of the records, lets the requester set a cost ceiling, and states the clock: within 15 business days of receipt the public body must provide access, deny the request or say more time is needed.
It also warns that the request itself may become a public record. The Delaware public records law guide covers the exemptions for investigative files, and the public list of registered sex offenders, which the fingerprint report does not reproduce, is explained in the Delaware sex offender registry guide.
Questions about Delaware arrest records
Related Delaware records
Delaware guides on this site that pick up where this one stops are the Delaware background check guide for employer and licensing checks, the Delaware inmate search guide for the unified system and VINE, the Delaware sex offender registry guide, the Delaware public records law guide for FOIA requests, and the Delaware county pages for the police departments and courts in each county.