The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is the fingerprint repository for the state, and unlike most repositories it sells what it holds. Its request page rests the service on the Open Records Act, Title 51 section 24A.5, which requires at least a full name and date of birth for every request and lets anyone ask about anyone. The record returned is built from fingerprint supported arrests and convictions for serious misdemeanors and felonies within Oklahoma, so an arrest where no prints were taken, or the prints were unreadable, is not in it, and nothing from another state appears.
The online counter is the Criminal History Information Request Portal, CHIRP, where an account is free and each search costs $15 plus a single $1 convenience charge per transaction. Frequent users can apply to become billing customers. The bureau recommends CHIRP over its lobby, where anything that involves a payment must happen between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on a weekday. The county layer, the sheriffs and court clerks who hold the booking and the case, is reached through the Oklahoma county pages.
- $15 now, $20 from November 1, 2026: the OSBI name based search under Title 74 section 150.9, with the fingerprint based check moving from $19 to $25, by mail or in person only.
- Three years either way: CHIRP searches three years before and after the date of birth entered, accepts up to three aliases at no charge, and deletes results after 60 days.
- $150 to expunge: the OSBI fee to process a court order sealing an arrest, by cashier's check or money order, while expunging the court record itself is free.
- Deferred means permanent: an arrest that ended in a deferred sentence stays on the record forever, with the disposition updated to pled not guilty, case dismissed.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Oklahoma's own systems: the OSBI page on how to request a background check, the OSBI home page with the November 1, 2026 fee notice, the CHIRP criminal history portal, the CHIRP frequently asked questions, the OSBI criminal history record expungement page, the OSBI page on updating a criminal history, the OSBI Clean Slate initiative page, the OSCN docket search, the Department of Corrections offender lookup, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
How a CHIRP search is run and read
A search is one submission of a name, up to three aliases and a date of birth, with race, gender and a social security number optional. Because the portal looks three years on either side of the birth date, a common name returns a candidate list rather than a single hit, and a search that needs staff review is worked during business hours before a record or no record answer comes back. Searches that need staff review, and every search of the Department of Corrections sex offender and violent offender registries, are worked on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The CHIRP questions explain that the result expires after 60 days and must be saved before then, that a search resubmitted after that is charged again, and that a batch file can be uploaded for many names at once.
The registry searches are a separate product at $2 each. The sex offender registry and the Mary Rippy violent offender registry belong to the Department of Corrections, but OSBI will run them from the same cart, for $4 together. The bureau is candid that its record is furnished solely on name or description similarity with the subject of the inquiry, which is the standard warning of a name based product. For a fingerprint based record of a person, which costs $19 until October 31, 2026 and $25 after, the original cards must be mailed or brought in, never faxed, with a postage paid envelope for the reply.
Payment by mail is cashier's check, money order or card; fax requests take cards only. The Oklahoma background check guide covers the national fingerprint checks OSBI runs for licensing agencies.
The November 1, 2026 fee change
The OSBI home page carries the notice: per Senate Bill 1921, amending Title 74 section 150.9, the fee for a name based criminal history record request rises to $20 and the state fingerprint based request to $25 effective November 1, 2026, the fingerprint version remaining a mail or in person service. The request page and the CHIRP terms still show $15 and $19, which will be the price only through the end of October. Nothing on the state pages changes the $2 registry searches or the $1 convenience fee. The bureau's headquarters at 6600 North Harvey Place in Oklahoma City answers at 405-848-6724.
Two kinds of expungement, and the $150
Oklahoma has a Section 18 expungement and a Section 991(c) expungement, and the OSBI expungement page keeps them apart. A Section 18 order, under Title 22, seals the entire arrest record. A 991(c) order is for a deferred sentence: it expunges the plea and updates the case to show it dismissed, with the disposition reading pled not guilty, case dismissed, but it does not remove the arrest. The categories of people who may petition are listed in Title 22 section 18(A), the OSBI cannot pre-approve anyone, the state may object even to a qualifying petition, and the age of the arrest never matters. Multiple arrests in one county go on one petition, and each county needs its own.
Expunging the court record is free. Expunging the arrest record at OSBI requires a $150 processing fee, by cashier's check or money order, never a personal check, and local agencies may charge for their own files. The petition or order sent to OSBI must carry the name, social security number, date of birth, the charges, the arrest date and the disposition, and a domestic related charge needs a police report naming the relationship to avoid delay.
Court expungements take about a month after OSBI receives a certified order, arrest expungements about as long after the order and fee arrive, and OSBI sends no confirmation; the only check is to buy a new search. Fingerprints are not destroyed, but they are detached from the sealed arrest, and OSBI says the FBI record is expunged too. The pamphlet adds that sealed records not unsealed within ten years may be destroyed, and that an employer or agency may not require an applicant to disclose sealed information.
Deferred sentences and record updates
An arrest that ended in a deferred sentence cannot be removed from the OSBI file. The update page says state law does not allow the complete removal of such an arrest; the arrest stays and the disposition becomes pled not guilty, case dismissed, which is a no conviction outcome but still a visible arrest on a $15 search. To update any disposition OSBI needs certified copies: the final disposition from the court clerk in the county of arrest, or the municipal court if the charge was handled in city court, and for a completed deferral the certified deferred dismissal, obtained from the district attorney if the court no longer has the file.
Questions about reading a record go to the rap sheet question mailbox, and OSBI publishes a guide to reading a rap sheet.
Clean Slate, funded but not finished
House Bill 3316, passed in the 2022 session, created the Clean Slate law by amending Title 22 sections 18 and 19. Of the fifteen paragraphs of section 18 that described who could petition for expungement, eleven became Clean Slate eligible, meaning the state would seal them without a petition once a system existed. The bill allowed three years from its November 1, 2022 effective date, but no money came that year. A one time appropriation in the 2023 session paid for a new computerized criminal history system, recurring money from the 2024 session funds staff, and the OSBI page says there is no clear deadline, that the earliest possible one would have been November 1, 2025, and that an implementation plan with two major phases is bridging the gap between petition based expungement and the automatic process.
Until that process runs, the Section 18 petition and the $150 fee remain the way to clear an arrest.
The statewide docket and the prison lookup
The Oklahoma State Courts Network runs a single docket search that takes a county or court, a case number, or a party name with birth date limits, with filters for district and appellate case types and filing or closing dates. It is the quickest way to see whether an arrest turned into a filed case and how it ended. The Department of Corrections OK Offender lookup covers state prisoners and fugitives, and its terms say the information is abbreviated and not an exact statement of the offense or time to serve.
The Oklahoma court records guide covers the court clerks behind OSCN, and the Oklahoma inmate search guide covers county jails, which OK Offender does not list.
What the sheriff holds and OSBI does not
The OSBI record is an index of fingerprinted arrests and their dispositions. The booking sheet, the mugshot and the incident report stay with the sheriff or police department that made the arrest, which is why an expungement order must also be served on local agencies, and why OSBI points people with disposition problems to the county court clerk. A charge handled in a municipal court lives in that city's records. For a wanted person, the sheriff and the court that issued the warrant are the sources, covered in Oklahoma wants and warrants, and the Oklahoma criminal records guide lays out which office answers which question.
Questions about Oklahoma arrest records
Related Oklahoma records
Oklahoma readers can continue with the Oklahoma background check guide for fingerprint and licensing checks, Oklahoma court records for the OSCN dockets and court clerks, Oklahoma inmate search for prisons and county jails, the Oklahoma sex offender registry guide, the Oklahoma public records law guide for the Open Records Act, and the Oklahoma county pages for every sheriff and court clerk.