The Iowa Department of Public Safety's criminal history record check page sets a single price: $15 per last name, with a separate form and payment for each last name requested, payable in cash, check, money order or a MasterCard, Visa or Discover card. Every request must carry the subject's first name, last name and exact date of birth; gender, Social Security number and middle name are optional but help resolve common names. The page answers the consent question directly. Iowa law does not require a release authorization to check another person, but without one the Division of Criminal Investigation cannot release completed deferred judgments to anyone outside law enforcement, or arrests more than 18 months old that have no final disposition.
The request and billing forms, DCI-77 and DCI-76, repeat the rule in the words of the statute: without a signed release from the subject, a complete criminal history record may not be releasable under Code of Iowa Chapter 692.2, and DCI-77 is the only approved release form. The form also explains why a check can come back empty. No Iowa Criminal History Found with DCI may mean there is no record, that the information on file is not releasable without a release, or that the only entries are confidential juvenile records that no release can unlock. Iowa checks are name based, the division says, and without fingerprints positive identification cannot be determined. The sheriffs and police departments that report those arrests are listed on the Iowa county pages.
- $15 per last name: the fee for every request, with a separate form and payment for each surname, by cash, check, money order or card.
- 18 months: an arrest older than that with no disposition is withheld unless the subject signs the DCI-77 release; so is a completed deferred judgment.
- Self only, same day: walk in results between 8 am and 4 pm go only to the subject with a government photo ID; a request on anyone else is left for normal processing.
- 180 days: after an acquittal or dismissal of all charges, with court costs paid, the court must expunge the case on application under Iowa Code 901C.2.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Iowa's own systems: the Iowa Department of Public Safety criminal history record check information page, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation billing and request forms, DCI-76 and DCI-77, the Iowa Criminal History Record Check online service notice, the other request options page of the Iowa Criminal History Record Check service, Iowa Code section 901C.2 on the Iowa Legislature site, Iowa Courts Online, the Iowa Department of Corrections offender search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The portal that is offline, and the four routes that are not
On October 15, 2026 the state's Iowa Criminal History Record Check site displayed a notice that it is offline: the division is developing a new website, expects the upgrade to require extensive downtime, does not know when the new application will be online, and will announce it publicly, directing people in the meantime to the forms on the Department of Public Safety site. The department's own page still describes an online portal through which both forms and a card or DCI account number are submitted, with one to three days of processing; the two official pages disagree on whether online ordering is available, and the offline notice is the newer statement.
Mail, fax, email and where the results may go
The remaining routes are mail, fax to 515-725-6080, email to the Dissemination Unit, and the counter at the Oran Pape State Office Building, 215 East 7th Street, Des Moines. Telephone requests are refused. By mail, fax or email the forms can be filled in online and downloaded or completed by hand, both forms must be complete or nothing is processed, and the department gives one to three days on one part of the page and two to five business days from receipt in its questions, excluding mail time.
Results are mailed only to United States and Canadian addresses and faxed only to United States numbers; email goes anywhere as an encrypted PDF from a secureemail address, though the department warns another country may not accept an emailed result as an original and suggests routing a mailed result through a friend or relative in the United States.
Walking in: same day results, but only for yourself
The office takes walk in requests between 8 am and 4 pm, Monday to Friday, and the other request options page explains the limit: under Code of Iowa Chapter 692.2(1) the division can give immediate results only to the subject of the request, who must show a government issued photo ID such as a driver license or passport. Someone checking another person leaves the request for processing. The same fee of $15 per last name applies at the counter, and the office's business hours run to 4:30 pm though record check processing stops at 4.
Notarized or certified results are not standard; the division notarizes on request when the result is needed for immigration or for travel or work in another country, and the box must be ticked on the request form.
Disputes, juveniles and deferred judgments
A person who disputes a result emails the Dissemination Unit with the details; the division reviews them and may ask for fingerprints to verify identity, since every record it holds is supported by fingerprints. Juvenile records are confidential under Iowa law and never appear in a DCI result, with or without a release, and a person seeking them must apply to the clerk of court under Iowa Code 232.147(18); the forms note that some juvenile sex offense convictions appear on the public sex offender registry even though the underlying record stays confidential.
A completed deferred judgment is expunged only at the court; it stays in the division's file, is marked discharged when the court reports completion, counts as a non conviction, and is released only with the subject's signed release. The Iowa background check guide explains how employers handle these gaps.
Expunging an acquittal or dismissal under 901C.2
Iowa's rule for arrests that went nowhere is in Iowa Code section 901C.2. On application by the defendant or the prosecutor, or on its own motion, the court shall expunge the record of a criminal case in which all charges ended in acquittal or were otherwise dismissed, once all court costs, fees and other financial obligations have been paid and at least 180 days have passed since the acquittal or dismissal, a waiting period the court may waive for good cause such as identity theft or mistaken identity.
The case must not have been dismissed on a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity, and the defendant must not have been found incompetent to stand trial. All parties get time to object before the order is entered.
An expunged record becomes confidential under section 22.7 but stays available to the defendant and to anyone granted access to the deferred judgment docket under section 907.4. The section does not cover dismissals that follow a deferred judgment under 907.9, applies to every public offense, reaches cases from before and after January 1, 2016, and requires the court to tell the defendant about it at the moment of acquittal or dismissal. The court's expungement reaches the court file; the DCI entry is the arrest the court dismissed, and the division's release rules above decide who sees it.
Court cases and the prison roster
Iowa Courts Online is the Judicial Branch's statewide case search, where a case can be found by name and the docket read, and the Iowa court records guide explains what the clerk of district court holds beyond the docket. For custody, the Department of Corrections offender search runs on name, offender number, sex, location, offense and county of commitment. The department states that offender records are public under Iowa Code section 904.601(1), that the data is updated weekly and may change quickly, and that conversion of older data means the latest information is not always shown; the Iowa inmate search guide covers it together with the county jail rosters.
The county file behind the state check
The division's records are summaries built from reports that Iowa criminal justice agencies are required to send it, and the division says it cannot guarantee their completeness. The arrest report, the booking photograph and the jail record stay with the sheriff or police department, and are requested from that agency under the open records law described in the Iowa public records law guide. A dismissed arrest that the division will not show without a signature can therefore still be sitting in a county file until a 901C.2 order reaches the agencies that hold it.
The public registry of sex offenders, which a DCI check does not reproduce, is covered in the Iowa sex offender registry guide.
Questions about Iowa arrest records
Related Iowa records
For the rest of an Iowa record search this site offers the Iowa court records guide for the clerks of district court, the Iowa background check guide for employers, the Iowa inmate search guide for prisons and county jails, the Iowa sex offender registry guide, the Iowa public records law guide for police reports, and the Iowa county pages.