The Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification keeps the state's central repository of criminal history, an automated database built from fingerprint arrest records reported by Idaho criminal justice agencies, and its criminal history page says it may be searched by name or by fingerprints. The bureau's fingerprinting and background checks page prices the two: a name based criminal background check at $20 and a fingerprint based check at $25, each paid by cash, check or card, with $1 plus 2.5 percent of the total added for a card. Each request needs the bureau's check form and a payment authorization form, may be hand delivered, mailed or, for the name based check, faxed, and is never accepted by email, which the bureau refuses for security reasons. Results are not given by telephone, fax or email, a request with missing data or a wrong payment is returned, and a returned check carries a $20 processing fee. The bureau handles about 94,000 applicant fingerprint cards and 30,000 name based checks a year.
Idaho law does not require the subject's waiver for a name based check, but the waiver governs the content: without one, any arrest over 12 months old that has no disposition cannot be given to a non criminal justice agency, and a waiver must have been signed within 180 days of the submission. The bureau notes that offenders commonly use aliases and false dates of birth, which is why a name based result cannot be notarized, while a fingerprint based result, built on positive identification, can be notarized on request. Fingerprint cards must show the subject's name, aliases including maiden and previous married names, address, citizenship, descriptive data, date and place of birth, the reason for fingerprinting and the subject's signature, dated by the official who took the prints within 180 days. The county sheriffs who submit the arrest prints are listed on the Idaho county pages.
- $20 and $25: a name based and a fingerprint based Idaho check, plus $1 and 2.5 percent on card payments, with a $20 fee on any returned check.
- 12 months, 180 days: without a waiver, an arrest over 12 months old with no disposition is withheld; a waiver signature must be within 180 days of the request.
- One year: a person not charged within a year of an arrest or summons, acquitted, or dismissed on all charges may have the incident expunged by written request to the bureau.
- Only BCI: no local law enforcement agency may run a statewide record check for licensing or employment; it may only check its own files.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Idaho's own systems: the Idaho State Police criminal history page, the Idaho State Police fingerprinting and background checks page, the Bureau of Criminal Identification home page, the Idaho State Police expungement flow chart, the Idaho Supreme Court home page with the iCourt portal link, the Idaho courts page on court records and camera requests, the Idaho Department of Correction resident and client search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Expungement by letter under 67-3004(10)
Idaho's expungement statute is quoted on the criminal history page and drawn as a chart on the bureau's expungement flow chart. Any person who was arrested or served a criminal summons and then was not charged by indictment or information within one year, and any person acquitted of all offenses arising from the arrest or summons or whose charges were all dismissed, may have the fingerprint and criminal history record taken in connection with that incident expunged on written request directed to the department.
The bureau says that to use it a person need only provide arresting agency or court records showing compliance with the statute, through the expungement application on its forms page, mailed to the Idaho State Police at 700 South Stratford Drive, Suite 120, Meridian, ID 83642. The chart draws the other branch too: an arrest followed by jail time, probation or a fine does not qualify. For anything beyond the statute the bureau directs people to an attorney, and its questions make the default plain, that a dismissed charge continues to show on a record with the dismissal noted until an expungement is approved, and that information otherwise remains indefinitely unless a court orders complete removal.
Disputing an entry at no cost
Every arrest event in the Idaho database is supported by fingerprints, so a person who believes a background check shows charges that are not theirs requests a certified copy of their own record through the fingerprint based check, which the bureau processes free of charge when the purpose is a challenge. After reviewing the record the person may send supplemental information from the arresting agency or court, and the bureau reviews it and enters corrections where needed.
Someone denied a firearm because of an entry in the national instant check system is sent to the FBI's NICS appeal services team in Clarksburg, West Virginia, rather than to the bureau. Juvenile records are not in the Idaho database unless the juvenile was adjudicated as an adult, and the file holds Idaho arrests only; an arrest for which no fingerprint card was submitted will not appear at all, which the bureau says can leave a record at the local level that the state file does not show.
Fingerprinting in Meridian
The bureau fingerprints the public only at its headquarters at 700 South Stratford Drive in Meridian, not at district offices, Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4:30 pm, with no appointment, and asks large groups to wait outside because of limited space. The fee is $10 for the first card and $5 for each additional card, by cash, check or card with the same $1 plus 2.5 percent surcharge, and a current government photo ID is required.
Outside the Treasure Valley the bureau sends people to their local law enforcement agency. Employers and licensing boards that order fingerprint checks, and the qualified entities screening workers who serve children, the elderly and people with disabilities under the National Child Protection Act at $33.25 per employee and $31.25 per volunteer, are covered in the Idaho background check guide.
Why the sheriff cannot sell a statewide check
The bureau answers one question that trips up employers: can a local law enforcement agency do a statewide criminal records check for the public? No. Only the bureau has the authorization to conduct a statewide check for non criminal justice licensing or employment screening, and a local agency may only check its own records. Under Idaho Code 67-3008 the bureau is also the state's sole channel for fingerprint submissions to the FBI, whether for criminal justice or applicant purposes.
The Criminal History Unit is reached at 208-884-7134, and the bureau notes that a background check lacking disposition data can be completed by the requester from state or local court records, pointing to the county district court contacts.
iCourt, Rule 32 and the three day clock
Court cases are a different file. The Idaho Supreme Court site links district and magistrate case information through the iCourt portal at mycourts.idaho.gov, and its records page explains that access to state court records is governed by Idaho Court Administrative Rule 32, which is distinct from the Idaho Public Records Act and gives the public a right to the records of all proceedings open to the public. Records from a case are read at a courthouse kiosk or requested from the clerk where the case was filed, a custodian has three working days to provide records, deny the request or refer it to a custodian judge, and must give notice within ten working days if more time is needed.
Party verification for background checks runs through a separate service portal, and compiled data across many cases needs a data request form that the courts are not obliged to grant. The Idaho court records guide follows that process county by county.
Who the Department of Correction shows
The resident and client search of the Idaho Department of Correction covers people incarcerated, on probation or on parole under its jurisdiction, and those on court probation, with a list of the felonies a person is serving time for; it is searched by name or IDOC number, with at least two letters of the last name or three digits of the number. People who have completed their sentences still appear by name, but their convictions do not.
The database is updated daily, and the department warns that location, status and scheduled termination date can change faster than the page. County jails, where an arrestee waits before a magistrate hearing, keep their own rosters, which the Idaho inmate search guide collects.
The report at the agency and the registry
An arrest report in Idaho is a public record of the arresting agency, requested under the Public Records Act described in the Idaho public records law guide, and the bureau's own file is the summary that follows the fingerprint card. Because the bureau will expunge a qualifying arrest only on the subject's written request, a dismissed charge can show on both files for years unless someone asks. The sex offender registry the bureau also runs is public and separate, and the Idaho sex offender registry guide covers it.
Questions about Idaho arrest records
Related Idaho records
Idaho readers can continue with the Idaho court records guide for the iCourt portal and the clerks, the Idaho background check guide for employers and qualified entities, the Idaho inmate search guide for prisons and county jails, the Idaho sex offender registry guide, the Idaho public records law guide for police reports, and the Idaho county pages.