The Department of Public Safety's Law Enforcement Records Bureau runs the State Central Repository for Criminal History, which keeps arrest record information on people arrested in New Mexico for felonies, for misdemeanors punishable by six months or more, and for DWI. The source document for every entry is the fingerprint card taken at arrest and sent in by the arresting agency, so the bureau warns that completeness depends on what each agency submits. Under the Arrest Record Information Act, section 29-10-6, an individual may inspect the arrest record information about himself or herself in person, through counsel or through an authorized agent, which is the right the release form exercises.
The repository is one layer. The arrest itself is on the books of the arresting agency, from the State Police to a county sheriff or a city department, and the charge that follows is on the court's docket, reachable through the Judiciary's Case Lookup, whose disclaimer limits use to viewing individual records and cites section 14-3-15.1. The New Mexico county pages list the sheriffs and magistrate courts, and the New Mexico court records guide follows the district and metropolitan clerks.
- $15 with a notary: the processing fee per record check, by money order or cashier's check payable to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, with a legible, complete and notarized Authorization for Release of Information bearing an original signature.
- All adult arrests released: with the required release and proper payment the bureau releases every adult arrest record it holds, which is why the courts require that record with any expungement petition.
- One year after release without conviction: the Criminal Record Expungement Act allows a petition to expunge arrest and public records once a year has passed since the final disposition of charges that ended without a conviction.
- Up to a year in jail for misusing a database: section 14-3-15.1 makes it a misdemeanor to reveal state database information to an unauthorized person or permit unauthorized access, punishable by up to one year in jail, a $5,000 fine and a five year bar from state employment.
Written by SearchSystems.net from New Mexico's own systems: the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Law Enforcement Records Bureau page, the department's page on expungements, the New Mexico Judiciary instructions for an expungement petition after release without conviction, the New Mexico Judiciary instructions for an expungement petition after a conviction, section 14-3-15.1 of the New Mexico statutes on state agency databases, the New Mexico Judiciary Case Lookup, the New Mexico Corrections Department offender search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Requesting the arrest record from DPS
The bureau page sets out the request in one paragraph. A legible, complete and notarized Department of Public Safety Authorization for Release of Information form, available in English and Spanish, is submitted for processing with a $15 money order or cashier's check made out to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, and the department must receive the form with the original signature, not a copy. With the release and payment in order, all adult arrest records are released.
The same bureau answers background check and fingerprinting questions at 505-827-9181 and handles Inspection of Public Records Act requests at 505-476-2400 through its public records center, which is where a crash report or an incident record from the State Police is obtained; fatal crash reports are kept for 25 years and others for 10 under rule 1.21.2.927 NMAC.
The Police Certificate of Good Standing and visa clearances
For immigration, a consulate often wants more than the record, and the bureau sells a Police Certificate of Good Standing, a certification combined with the background check, for $33 by money order or cashier's check, requested by mail only on its own authorization form to LERB Customer Engagement, PO Box 1628, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1628, with a turnaround of 7 to 15 working days depending on volume. Visa clearances run through the same customer engagement office.
The New Mexico background check guide covers the fingerprint based checks that licensing boards and employers order through the New Mexico Applicant Processing Service, which returns a state answer to the ordering agency within 24 to 48 hours of the electronic submission and the FBI answer within 48 to 72, and the manual fingerprinting counter at headquarters in Santa Fe, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a lunch closure, where the first two cards cost $9 together and each further card $2.50.
The Criminal Record Expungement Act
The department's expungements page records that a new Criminal Records Expungement Act, sections 29-3A-1 through 29-3A-7, took effect January 1, 2020, allowing a qualifying person to petition a court to expunge criminal and related public records, with rule 10.2.2 NMAC on expungement of arrest records adopted alongside it, and it sends petitioners to the courts for forms. The Judiciary's instructions for a release without conviction explain the simplest case: when at least one year has passed since the final disposition of charges or of an arrest that ended with no conviction, the person files form 4-952, a Petition to Expunge Arrest Records and Public Records, in the district court for the county where the charges originated or the arrest occurred, even if the case was in a municipal or metropolitan court or no case was ever filed, and the petition is filed under seal or under a pseudonym.
Rule 1-077.1 requires the approved forms. The petition must attach the person's DPS arrest record, obtained with the release form and fee, dated no more than 90 days before filing, along with the arrest date, arrest number, case number, charges and disposition drawn from law enforcement and court records.
The conviction instructions add a sliding scale. After completing the sentence and paying all fines and fees, with no other charges pending anywhere, any restitution paid and a showing that justice will be served, a person must have no new conviction for two years after a municipal ordinance or ordinary misdemeanor conviction, four years after a misdemeanor aggravated battery or a fourth degree felony, six years after a third degree felony, eight years after a second degree felony, and ten years after a first degree felony or any offense under the Crimes Against Household Members Act.
A conviction petition must attach both the DPS record and the FBI record, each dated within 90 days. Records from other counties and other states may also be needed, since a petition reaches only records in the county where they originated. The New Mexico criminal records guide covers the offenses the act excludes.
Case Lookup and the database penalty
The Judiciary's Case Lookup opens with a disclaimer: use of the site for anything other than viewing individual electronic court records, or attempts to download multiple records per transaction, is prohibited, data use is subject to section 14-3-15.1, and anyone who sees an error should notify the court that heard the case. The expungement instructions show how it is used, by entering the last name and then the first name with a space and no comma, adding a date of birth to separate people with the same name, and printing the case information, while copies of the documents themselves come from the court.
Section 14-3-15.1 is the reason the disclaimer exists. It makes database information a public record available in printed form for a reasonable fee, lets an agency license a copy of a database only to someone who agrees not to copy it, not to use it for political or commercial purposes without written approval, not to use it for solicitation when it holds names and addresses, and to pay a royalty, and it makes revealing database information to an unauthorized person, or permitting unauthorized access, a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $5,000 or both, plus a five year bar from state employment.
Offender search and absconders
The Corrections Department offender search takes a last name, first name or offender number, filters by region and age, and distinguishes active offenders from inactive ones with an option to include both; an absconder only search needs no other information. A person booked into a county detention center and not yet sentenced to the department is on the county's roster, which the New Mexico inmate search guide covers, and the Department of Public Safety's separate registry is covered in the New Mexico sex offender registry guide.
Questions about New Mexico arrest records
Related New Mexico records
New Mexico readers can continue with the New Mexico criminal records guide for conviction files and excluded offenses, the New Mexico court records guide for the district, magistrate and metropolitan clerks, the New Mexico background check guide for NMAPS fingerprint checks, the New Mexico public records law guide for the Inspection of Public Records Act, and the New Mexico county pages for every sheriff and detention center.