New York splits arrest history between two agencies that answer to different rules. The Division of Criminal Justice Services holds the official criminal history record, the rap sheet, assembled from fingerprints taken by police departments, district attorneys, courts and other criminal justice agencies. DCJS says plainly that these records are not public, cannot be had under the Freedom of Information Law, and are never sold to third parties or background check companies. A person can get only their own, and only after being fingerprinted.
The Office of Court Administration runs the other search. Its Criminal History Record Search covers open and pending cases and convictions from the county and supreme, city, town and village courts of all 62 counties, costs $95 per name, and is sold to anyone, companies included. It is a court index rather than a fingerprint file, so the two products can disagree, and the state warns that commercial background checks are built from this kind of name based data, not from the rap sheet. For the county layer, the sheriffs and county clerks, start at the New York county pages.
- $17.50 or $57.45: the IdentoGO fingerprint fee for your own DCJS record, in state or out of state, as of February 2, 2026, with the answer mailed in three to four weeks.
- $95 per name: the Office of Court Administration statewide search, exact name and date of birth only, usually completed by the next business day and never certified.
- Ten years: the court search drops a lone misdemeanor conviction once a decade has passed, and CPL 160.59 lets a court seal up to two convictions after the same wait.
- November 16, 2027: the deadline for the courts to seal eligible convictions under the Clean Slate Act, three years after a misdemeanor sentence and eight after a felony.
Written by SearchSystems.net from New York's own systems: the DCJS page on requesting your New York State criminal history, the DCJS form for agency access to criminal history record information, the Office of Court Administration criminal history record search page, the Office of Court Administration CHRS frequently asked questions, the New York Courts page on criminal records and sealing, the New York Courts page on the Clean Slate Act, the DOCCS incarcerated lookup, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Getting your own rap sheet through IdentoGO
The DCJS route starts with a fingerprint appointment booked through IdentoGO, by phone at 877-472-6915 or online, using one of two service codes: 15464Z for a suppressed record, 15465F for an unsuppressed one. The two are different products and a person who wants both must make two separate requests. The unsuppressed version lists everything, including cases sealed as dismissed under CPL 160.50, violation and infraction convictions sealed under 160.55, drug cases sealed under 160.58, convictions sealed by a judge under 160.59, youthful offender adjudications, and charges dismissed in court since November 1, 1991.
The suppressed version leaves all of that out and shows what an authorized agency would see.
Inside New York the fee is $17.50, payable to Idemia by card, check or money order, as of February 2, 2026. Outside the state an IdentoGO center charges $57.45, or a person with no center nearby can have prints rolled on an FBI FD-258 card by local police and enroll for cardscan submission at $17.50, mailing the card and a signed confirmation page to the IdentoGO card scan office in Tallahassee. One form of identification is required, and a parent requesting a record for a child aged 11 to 17 without acceptable identification completes a photo identification waiver.
Someone requesting a record for international use picks the travel or international purpose so DCJS can add the signed document an apostille requires.
The answer comes by mail only, in three to four weeks, with no counter pickup: either the rap sheet, information about fingerprints submitted for jobs or licenses, or a no record letter, together with instructions on how to challenge anything wrong. A person who cannot afford the $17.50 writes to the Records Review Unit at 80 South Swan Street in Albany, or emails it, for a fee waiver application packet, and must give a complete mailing address because the packet is sent by post.
Who else may see the DCJS record
An employer or licensing agency cannot simply ask DCJS about an applicant. There must be a federal, state or local law that specifically authorizes a fingerprint based check for that job or license, the employer must tell the applicant about the requirement, and every authorized agency signs a Use and Dissemination Agreement with DCJS. Executive Law section 835 defines the qualified agencies that receive records for criminal justice work, and the four page access request form is for agencies, never for an individual seeking a copy of a personal record.
A local law that creates such access must name the license type or job title, require fingerprints and fees to be sent to DCJS, name the reviewing official, and require that a conviction be weighed under Correction Law Articles 23 and 23-A. Peace officer agencies generally get only wanted and missing person information, not the full history.
The practical result for a landlord, a neighbor or a reporter is that no name based request to DCJS exists at all. The New York background check guide covers the agencies that do hold statutory access, and the court search below is the public route.
The $95 court search and its blind spots
The Office of Court Administration search can be filed online through the Direct Access program, paid by e-check or card, or on the CHRS application form mailed with a check or money order to the New York State Office of Court Administration. Each alias and each additional date of birth counts as another $95 search. There is no counter service at the 25 Beaver Street unit. Requests are typically completed by the next business day, a no results answer online comes back in real time, and a result that reads processing is being reviewed by staff and will be emailed.
The CHRS questions page tells users not to resubmit without checking the receipts link, which shows six months of past requests.
The report has a long list of things it will not show. Family, civil and federal cases are out. Noncriminal offenses such as violations and infractions have not appeared since July 20, 2007. A person whose only conviction is a single misdemeanor more than ten years old is reported as having nothing, under the Misdemeanor Redemption Policy. Cases with no final disposition and no activity for five years are dropped unless a warrant is open.
Pending cases flagged as youthful offender eligible are withheld, cases moved to Family Court are not reported, sealed records including those sealed under CPL 160.59 are not disclosed, and convictions for the repealed marijuana possession offenses are treated as vacated and expunged, with any inquiry about them an unlawful discriminatory practice unless a statute allows it. Town and village court dispositions are missing entirely from May 1991 through 2002 and thin from 2002 to 2007.
A charge that never led to fingerprinting, such as an unclassified misdemeanor, is on neither the rap sheet nor the court report. The result is not certified and is not a certificate of disposition, which only the court of origin issues.
What sealing does to an arrest
New York seals most arrests that end well without anyone asking. The courts describe a favorable disposition, a dismissal or acquittal, as automatically and fully sealed under CPL 160.50, and most traffic infractions and violations as automatically partially sealed under 160.55. When a record that should have been sealed still shows, the courts publish a procedure for correcting the mistake under those two sections. A person with no more than two misdemeanor convictions, or one felony and one misdemeanor, may ask a judge to seal them after a ten year wait under CPL 160.59, and some drug related convictions can be conditionally sealed under 160.58 after a treatment program.
A sealed case still appears on the unsuppressed DCJS record a person orders for themselves, which is why DCJS offers that version at all.
Clean Slate and the November 2027 deadline
The Clean Slate Act took effect on November 16, 2024, and gave the Unified Court System three years, to November 16, 2027, to build the process that seals eligible convictions for civil background check purposes. A misdemeanor becomes eligible three years after sentencing or release from incarceration, whichever is later, and a felony eight years after. The person must not be on probation, parole or post release supervision, must have no pending misdemeanor or felony, and a new conviction before sealing restarts the clock.
Most Class A felonies other than drug offenses, including murder and sex offenses, are excluded. The courts say they need to connect every conviction in every court to jail, probation and parole time before sealing, that eligible records will be sealed before the deadline, and that a form for asking a manual review when a record was missed will be posted no later than November 16, 2027. Until then the way to see whether a conviction has been sealed is to order the DCJS record.
Custody records and the DOCCS lookup
State prison custody is a separate file. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision publishes an incarcerated lookup for people in its facilities, which is the place to confirm a sentence rather than an arrest. The New York inmate search guide explains that lookup and the county jail rosters, and the New York court records guide covers the eCourts services for individual case files, which the Office of Court Administration lists alongside the $95 search as WebCrims and its companions. For the names of people the state is actively seeking, see New York wants and warrants.
The county sheriff and the arrest report itself
DCJS keeps the fingerprint record, OCA keeps the court outcome, and neither holds the narrative arrest report. That document stays with the arresting agency, a county sheriff, a city police department or the State Police, and DCJS tells people who dispute an entry to take the challenge instructions mailed with their record back to the agency that reported it. A county sheriff also runs the jail where a person is booked, so the booking record and the custody status are county records, and the local court that arraigned the person holds the certificate of disposition.
The New York criminal records guide sets out which office answers which question, and the county pages list every sheriff and county clerk.
Questions about New York arrest records
Related New York records
New York readers can continue with the New York background check guide for the agencies with statutory access, New York court records for the eCourts case services, New York inmate search for state and county custody, the New York sex offender registry guide, the New York public records law guide for the Freedom of Information Law, and the New York county pages for every sheriff and county clerk.