The Identification Section of the Division of Criminal Investigation, inside the Attorney General's office, is the central repository for criminal history under SDCL 23-3-16 and 23-5-2. It keeps more than 230,000 record subjects, processes about 30,000 arrest incidents a year of which about 60 percent are repeat offenders, and runs more than 21,500 civil applicant checks annually. Every record rests on fingerprints: the background check questions say the repository is 100 percent fingerprint supported, and a person never fingerprinted at arrest has no record there at all.
The law closes that file to the public. SDCL 23-5-11 exempts criminal history information from the open records sections 1-27-1 to 1-27-1.15, and SDCL 23-5-12 lets a person examine only the information that refers to that person, on a written request with fingerprint identification, with the option of authorizing release to someone else. So the Division offers a personal check to the individual and a state and FBI check to agencies that a statute and the FBI have approved, and nothing to a neighbor, landlord or reporter, who turn instead to the courts and to the sheriff listed on the South Dakota county pages.
- $30 or $50: the personal state only check and the agency state and FBI check, paid online with no refunds, with electronic prints taken at a South Dakota livescan within 10 days or on a mailed card.
- $20 per search: the Unified Judicial System Public Access Record Search, charged whether or not anything is found, covering criminal cases from 1989 to the present on a name and date of birth.
- Fingerprints and a waiver: SDCL 23-5-12 requires fingerprint identification and a signed authorization of release before the Division shows anyone a rap sheet, even their own.
- One year, or at once: an arrest can be expunged a year after it if no charge was filed or a year after a dismissal, and immediately after an acquittal, under SDCL 23A-3-27.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Dakota's own systems: the South Dakota Attorney General background check requirements page, the Attorney General background check questions, the Attorney General Identification Section page, the Unified Judicial System court records search page, the Public Access Record Search, the statewide record search request form, the no fee record search request form, SDCL 23-5-12 on examining your own criminal history, SDCL 23-5-11 on confidential criminal justice information, SDCL 23A-3-27 on the motion for expungement of an arrest record, SDCL 23A-3-30 on the order of expungement, SDCL 23A-3-32 on the effect of an order of expungement, the Department of Corrections offender locator, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Getting your own South Dakota rap sheet
The requirements page gives two routes. By mail, a person calls the Division at 605-773-3331, asks for the Identification Section, and receives a supply kit with a letter at no cost; the applicant card comes back with the signed authorization of release waiver that SDCL 23-5-12 requires and a $30 check or money order payable to the Division of Criminal Investigation under SDCL 23-5-13. Online, the person creates an account, fills in the background check request form, accepts the terms, the release and the privacy statement, pays $30 by card or bank account with no refunds, prints the receipt and takes it to a livescan machine in South Dakota, which will not fingerprint anyone without the receipt and will likely require an appointment.
Prints must be submitted within 10 days or the request may be deleted and the payment resubmitted, and an online request cannot be finished with a mailed card.
The Division needs five business days plus mail time. The answer is either a letter that no record was found or a letter with a printout of the record from the technical search, mailed to whoever the signed authorization names. Juvenile delinquency does not appear because the Division keeps no juvenile records, only people under eighteen transferred to adult court. A suspended imposition of sentence that was discharged and sealed by the court is not released for most purposes, with an exception for certain sex crimes when the applicant seeks work such as teaching or law enforcement.
The South Dakota background check guide covers the agencies with their own statutory checks.
The $50 agency check and the exceptions
The state and FBI check at $50 is for employment, certification and licensing by South Dakota agencies approved through legislation and assigned an originating agency identifier by the FBI, and an applicant must ask the agency about its own requirements before starting. School district applicants follow the district's procedure under SDCL 13-10-12, guardianship applicants go to the clerk of courts, and pistol permit applicants go to the sheriff.
The Division orders state only fingerprint cards through an online form and tells individuals that state and FBI cards come from the agency or board, not from DCI. A person who wants a federal record for personal use contacts the FBI directly. Expungement and pardons are outside the Division's hands; it points to the statutes and to the Department of Corrections pardon page and suggests a private attorney.
The $20 court search that anyone can run
The Unified Judicial System provides the public window. Its Public Access Record Search shows the docket entries of criminal cases and domestic, stalking and foreign protection orders, and can be used to check yourself, another person or a business. A search needs a name and a date of birth, costs $20 whether or not anything is found, and can be paid as a guest search by card or through a drawdown account for volume users set up through PARS support.
Criminal cases are available from 1989 to the present unless sealed; anything earlier is requested from the clerk of courts in the county where the case was filed. The summary points to the full record, which can be viewed or printed at the public access terminals in every courthouse.
A written statewide search uses the record search request form: $20 per name for criminal data from January 1989, $20 for civil data from January 2006, and $5 when the requester certifies the search is for a pending state or federal case including bankruptcy, with each alias billed as a separate name and results matching only the exact information given. A named party, a legal representative or a qualified agency under SDCL 16-2-29 files the no fee form instead, certifying the exemption under penalty of law.
Bulk requests for research or commercial use go to the State Court Administrator under SDCL 15-15A-12, and resale of bulk court data is prohibited. The South Dakota court records guide covers eCourts and the seven circuits.
Expunging an arrest after a year
SDCL 23A-3-27, last amended in March 2022, lets an arrested person apply to the court that would have had jurisdiction for an order expunging the arrest record one year after an arrest with no accusatory instrument filed, one year after the prosecutor formally dismisses the entire case on the record, at any time after an acquittal, or within that first year after a dismissal on a showing of compelling necessity. Expungement in SDCL 23A-3-26 means sealing every record of detection, apprehension, arrest, detention, trial and disposition held by a court, jail, law enforcement agency or the Department of Public Safety, not physical destruction.
Under 23A-3-30 the court may grant the order on a showing by clear and convincing evidence that the ends of justice and the best interest of the public and of the person are served, and 23A-3-32 restores the person to the status held before the arrest, so that failing to mention it in answer to any inquiry is not perjury. The Division of Criminal Investigation sends people with expungement questions to the statutes and to a private attorney.
Prison sentences in the locator, nothing else
The Department of Corrections offender locator takes a DOC number or a last and first name and returns felony offenders sentenced to prison. People sentenced to county jail, to probation or to any other supervision are not in it, the data comes from court records and department files, and the department disclaims accuracy and gives two Sioux Falls numbers for corrections. Parolees remain in the legal custody of the department until the term expires, so a person released on parole still appears. The South Dakota inmate search guide covers the county jails that hold people after arrest and before sentencing.
What the sheriff holds and the Division does not
The Division of Criminal Investigation holds the fingerprint card and the rap sheet, confidential by statute. The sheriff of the county holds the jail booking record and the arrest report, the police department holds the incident report, and the clerk of courts holds the case that the $20 search summarizes. SDCL 23-5-11 adds a public piece: the date, time, general location and general subject of a call for service must be released even though the criminal history behind it cannot be, unless it would reveal intelligence, jeopardize an investigation or identify a mental health or chemical dependency intervention.
For people the sheriff is seeking, South Dakota wants and warrants covers the sources, the South Dakota criminal records guide maps every office, and the South Dakota public records law guide covers chapter 1-27.
Questions about South Dakota arrest records
Related South Dakota records
South Dakota readers can continue with the South Dakota background check guide for agency and licensing checks, South Dakota court records for PARS and the clerks of courts, South Dakota inmate search for prisons and county jails, the South Dakota sex offender registry guide, the South Dakota public records law guide, and the South Dakota county pages for every sheriff and clerk.