The Criminal Justice Information Services Division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol compiles and releases the state's criminal history, and its criminal record check page describes two products. A personal identifier search, matched on name, date of birth and Social Security number, costs $16 and returns a possible match drawn from open records: convictions and guilty pleas, arrest information less than 30 days old, charges a prosecutor has filed that await a disposition, and a suspended imposition of sentence while the probation runs. A fingerprint search returns a positive match from the closed record, which includes every arrest whether or not charges were filed, charges nolle prossed, dismissed or found not guilty, a suspended imposition of sentence after probation ends, and records expunged or closed under chapter 610.
The 30 day rule is what makes the two reports diverge. An arrest shows on a name search for a month; if no charge is filed it then moves out of public view, and only the closed record, which the division releases to the individual or to a qualified requesting entity, still shows it. Anyone tracing an older arrest that never became a case therefore needs the person's own fingerprint request or the records of the arresting agency, and the Missouri county pages list those sheriffs and police departments. A charge that was filed appears in the court file, which the Missouri court records guide covers through the judiciary's statewide Case.net docket.
- $16 per name: the personal identifier search, online through the MACHS Name Search Portal with a small convenience fee and any major credit card, returning a possible match from open records.
- 30 days, then private: arrest information stays in the open record only while it is less than 30 days old; after that an uncharged arrest appears only in the closed record.
- $20 with fingerprints: the state fingerprint search on an FD-258 card, $14 for concealed carry and foster care, or $35 through IDEMIA live scan and $47 with the FBI search for an authorized entity, answered in seven to ten business days.
- 18 months to clear an uncharged arrest: section 610.140 allows a petition to expunge an arrest record 18 months after the arrest if no charge was filed and no misdemeanor or felony conviction followed.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Missouri's own systems: the Missouri State Highway Patrol criminal record check page, the Highway Patrol Criminal Justice Information Services Division page, the Missouri Automated Criminal History Site, Revised Statutes of Missouri section 610.140 on expungement, Revised Statutes of Missouri section 610.122 on expunging an arrest record, the Missouri Department of Corrections offender web search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Ordering a name search through MACHS
The Missouri Automated Criminal History Site describes itself as the patrol's one stop site for background checks, split into a Name Search Portal and a Fingerprint Portal. Any member of the public may register on the name side and order a personal identifier search for $16 plus a small convenience fee, paid by credit card. The result is labeled a possible match, which the division underlines because a name and birth date can belong to more than one person.
A mailed request goes to the division with a check or money order payable to the State of Missouri - Criminal Record System Fund; cash, credit cards and foreign currency are refused, a request from outside the United States must be paid by money order in US dollars, and any return delivery faster than standard mail is at the requester's expense. A notarized copy of either kind of result costs $5 more. State agencies can be invoiced through the state accounting system.
The fingerprint check and the IDEMIA appointment
A fingerprint based search needs a completed FD-258 applicant card and a $20 state fee, reduced to $14 for concealed carry permits under section 571.101 and for foster care placements through the Department of Social Services. The result is a positive match and, for the person or an entity with statutory authority, the complete closed record. Most applicants now use the Fingerprint Portal to book with IDEMIA, the state's fingerprint vendor, which captures prints by live scan and sends them to the patrol without ever seeing the resulting record.
The page quotes the total as $35 for a state check through IDEMIA and $47 for a state and federal check available to authorized entities, with results mailed to the qualified entity or the applicant in seven to ten business days. IDEMIA takes appointments at 844-543-9712, and the Missouri background check guide explains which employers and the Missouri VECHS program for child, elder and disability care qualify for the national search.
Convictions, arrests and the court docket
A conviction that the patrol reports as open is also a court record, and a charge that a prosecutor filed appears on the judiciary's Case.net docket, where the case file rather than the rap sheet shows the plea, the sentence and any later motion. The patrol's record shows an arrest segment from the booking fingerprints and a court segment once the clerk reports the disposition, and a missing disposition is the usual reason an old charge appears unresolved.
The division's main page gives its address at 1510 East Elm Street in Jefferson City, with mail to P.O. Box 9500, Jefferson City, MO 65102-9500, and a switchboard at 573-526-6153. For the conviction side of the file, see the Missouri criminal records guide.
Expunging convictions and arrests under section 610.140
Section 610.140, in the version effective January 1, 2025, lets a person petition any court in which he or she was charged or found guilty to expunge records of the arrest, plea, trial or conviction, naming as defendants every agency, court, prosecutor and repository that may hold them. The excluded list is long: any class A felony, any dangerous felony, any offense requiring sex offender registration, felonies with death as an element, felony assault, any domestic assault, felony kidnapping, dozens of listed sections, intoxication related driving and boating offenses, any traffic offense by a commercial driver, and most weapons offenses under section 571.030.
For everything else the court looks for a petition filed at least three years after a felony disposition was completed or one year after a misdemeanor, municipal violation or infraction, no other guilty finding in that period apart from traffic violations, every fine and restitution paid, no pending charge, and conduct showing no threat to public safety. The petitioner's pleading on those last points creates a rebuttable presumption that shifts the burden to the prosecutor, who must object within 30 days of service; a hearing follows within 60 days of an objection and an order must issue within six months of filing.
Subsection 7 covers the arrest that went nowhere: a petition to expunge an eligible arrest may be filed in the county of arrest no earlier than 18 months after the arrest, provided no charge was filed and no misdemeanor or felony conviction occurred in the meantime. Lifetime limits apply across all petitions: no more than three misdemeanors or ordinance violations carrying jail time and no more than two felonies, with crimes from one course of conduct counted together at the highest level and infractions unlimited.
A granted expungement closes the records, obliges the central repository to ask the FBI to do the same, restores the right to vote, hold office and serve on a jury, and lets the person answer no to an employer's question about arrests or convictions unless the job falls under a federal or state exclusion rule, with banks, insurers, casinos, emergency services and licensing boards among the places where disclosure is still required. A petition dismissed for missing the criteria cannot be refiled for a year.
Arrests based on false information under section 610.122
A narrower remedy exists for an arrest that should never have happened. Section 610.122 allows expungement of an arrest record filed under section 43.503 when a court finds the arrest was based on false information, no probable cause exists at the time of the motion to believe the person committed the offense, no charges will be pursued and the person never received a suspended imposition of sentence for it or anything related.
It also reaches an arrest for a misdemeanor insurance offense under chapter 303 or a moving violation, other than an intoxication related traffic offense, where every charge was nolle prossed, dismissed or ended in acquittal and the person did not hold a commercial license or drive a commercial vehicle. No civil action about the arrest may be pending. This is the section used after a mistaken identity booking, since it needs no waiting period.
Where to find someone after sentencing
The Department of Corrections offender web search covers active offenders under its supervision, including people on probation and parole, searchable by first and last name with aliases included. It does not list discharged offenders, and the department withholds some people for safety, security or confidentiality reasons. A person booked into a county jail on a new arrest is not in it; that record sits with the sheriff, which the Missouri inmate search guide covers, and the patrol runs the separate public registry covered in the Missouri sex offender registry guide, with a toll free line at 1-888-767-6747.
Questions about Missouri arrest records
Related Missouri records
Missouri readers can continue with the Missouri criminal records guide for conviction files, the Missouri court records guide for Case.net and the circuit clerks, the Missouri background check guide for employer and VECHS checks, the Missouri public records law guide for the Sunshine Law, and the Missouri county pages for every sheriff and jail.