The Vermont Crime Information Center, part of the Department of Public Safety at 45 State Drive in Waterbury, is the only official source for Vermont criminal history, and its record check questions set the two tiers in a sentence each. A criminal conviction report shows only conviction information submitted by the courts and is available to anyone. A criminal history report shows all arrest and disposition information, including pending, acquitted and dismissed charges, and is available only to the person of record.
The public tier is sold through the Vermont Criminal Conviction Record Internet Service, where a name and date of birth and $30 by card return an immediate result to print or save, and the center says a release form is not required because the legislature made the conviction report available to anyone who asks about anyone. The center explains why it prefers its own product to a court docket or a commercial database: its records are identity based, so information is verified against the person before it is attached, while a docket based record carries whatever a case number carries. For the police departments and the Department of Corrections, see the Vermont county pages.
- $30 and immediate: the conviction report through VCCRIS on a name and date of birth, by card, with no release form and no limit on who may ask.
- Free in person: the full criminal history with arrests and dismissals, viewed at Waterbury by the person of record with two forms of identification, about ten minutes, or $30 notarized by mail in five to seven business days.
- 60 days: the court seals a charge that ended with no probable cause, a pretrial dismissal or an acquittal within 60 days of final disposition unless a party objects.
- Shredded: fingerprints taken for a school or vulnerable population check are destroyed after processing, and the center accepts prints only from a law enforcement agency.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Vermont's own systems: the Vermont Crime Information Center record checks page, the Crime Information Center record check questions, the Crime Information Center page on your own records, the Crime Information Center page on the criminal history repository, the Vermont Judiciary page on criminal record checks, the Vermont Judiciary page on expunging and sealing criminal records, the Vermont Judiciary Public Portal page, the Vermont Judiciary guide to warrant searches on the Public Portal, 13 V.S.A. section 7603 on sealing a record with no conviction, the Vermont Department of Corrections home page with the offender locator, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Seeing your own arrests in Waterbury
The own records page keeps the counter open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with walk ins after 3:30 p.m. possibly held to the next day, and a record check in person takes about ten minutes. Viewing your own criminal history report costs nothing; a printed record check costs $30 per copy, by Visa, MasterCard or Discover, money order or bank check to the Department of Public Safety, or exact cash, never a personal check. A walk in who wants the complete history, a certified copy or a notarized copy shows two forms of identification: two from the primary list of a state driver license, a state non driver card or a government card or passport with a photograph, or one of those plus a credit card, student card or check cashing card bearing a signature; two secondary items are not enough.
By mail the complete personal check needs the Request for Personal Criminal Record Check and the notary form signed by the subject before a notary with a raised seal, or a memo where the state has no raised seals, a self addressed stamped business envelope, and a cashier's check or money order for $30, sent to the Criminal Records Section in Waterbury; incomplete forms come back unprocessed, and processing takes five to seven business days.
The online service never produces a notarized letter, which is why people who need one for personal review, international adoption, licensing, employment, housing, a pardon, a civil case, custody or immigration either mail the forms or visit. The Vermont background check guide covers the employer side.
Inside the Waterbury repository, and what is missing from it
The repository page lists what a Vermont history documents: identification, arrest, citation, arraignment, judicial disposition, custody and supervision, consolidated from every criminal justice agency in the state. It also lists what is missing. Motor vehicle offenses such as driving while intoxicated or on a suspended license arraigned before September 1, 1995 are not there, nor are charges arraigned in the family court, the traffic ticket bureau or the municipal ordinance bureau, juvenile records unless the juvenile was prosecuted as an adult, any out of state charge, or any charge that was expunged.
The center adds that a Vermont check is a statewide check for convictions, while an FBI check is built on arrest fingerprints and covers every state, and that it does not provide fingerprint supported checks to individuals, who go to an Identification Center and then to the FBI themselves.
Fingerprint checks for schools and care agencies
Vermont schools and vulnerable population agencies run fingerprint supported checks through the center, and the mechanics are strict. A school applicant needs a Fingerprint Authorization Certificate from the school before any of the fifteen Identification Centers, which are law enforcement agencies trained to take prints, will roll them, at a charge of up to $35. The center accepts prints only from a law enforcement agency, never from the individual, charges $12 for education and National Child Protection Act employment checks and $10 for volunteers, shreds the prints once processed, and will not pass a school check on to anyone but another Vermont school, so a person who needs a check for a visa must start again.
Employees hired before July 1998 are grandfathered until they change schools. An applicant waiting on a school check is told to ask the school, not the center, since the center contacts the school only when there is a problem.
The Judiciary search, and what the portal shows at home
The courts run a separate statewide criminal record search on the Request for Criminal Record Search form 200-00331, with a fee per name set on the form, payable to Vermont Superior Court, needing the name and date of birth but no docket numbers, returned by email within about three business days or by mail with a stamped envelope; records before 1990 must be requested from the county where the case was heard. The Judiciary page distinguishes that search from a request to see one case file, and notes that sealed and expunged cases are never released.
Most courthouses have a public access terminal where a search by name or case number is free and only printing costs.
The Public Portal gives anonymous users remote case summaries for the civil division and the Judicial Bureau only; criminal, family and probate summaries and all documents are available to the general public only at courthouse terminals, and the portal is reachable only from the United States, its territories and Canada. The Judiciary's warrant search guide shows a warrants tab and a red W marker for agency users such as state's attorneys and defenders, with the status Issued meaning an active criminal division warrant, and warns that arrests are never to be made from the portal alone.
The Vermont court records guide covers each unit, and Vermont wants and warrants covers the sources open to the public.
Sealing within 60 days, and the 2025 rewrite
Section 7603 of Title 13 orders the court to seal the criminal history record of a citation or arrest within 60 days of final disposition when no probable cause was found at arraignment, the charge was dismissed before trial with or without prejudice, or the defendant was acquitted, unless either party objects in the interests of justice, in which case a hearing follows with the defendant and prosecutor as the only parties. A petition to seal may be filed at any time, and a stipulation with the prosecutor ends the matter.
The Judiciary expungement page describes the result: the record is not viewable in any accessible court database, a paper file goes into a confidential folder, nothing is destroyed, the order goes to the Crime Information Center, the arresting agency and any other state entity the petitioner names, and the center notifies the FBI.
Act 60 of 2025, effective July 1, 2025, cut the list of offenses that can be expunged and lengthened the list that can be sealed. Now a conviction can be expunged only for an offense that is no longer a crime, once the sentence is done and restitution and surcharges paid. Sealing of convictions waits three years for most misdemeanors, seven for the listed felonies and ten for a qualifying DUI misdemeanor, with no commercial driver license held, and offenses committed at 18 to 21 can be sealed 30 days after the sentence ends.
Every route requires that restitution and surcharges be paid or waived, and a denied petition means a wait of at least two years before trying again unless the court authorizes a shorter time. The Vermont criminal records guide covers the petition and stipulation forms.
Custody, and what the police department holds
The Department of Corrections publishes an offender locator from its home page, alongside its emergency notification system and a public use data file with daily identifiable point in time data, and the Vermont inmate search guide covers both. Vermont has no county jails; the department runs the correctional facilities that hold people after arraignment, while the city, town or State Police department that made the arrest holds the incident report and the booking photograph, and the criminal division of the Superior Court holds the case.
The Crime Information Center's identity based record is the only place arrests and dispositions from every agency sit together, and it is the one document a landlord or employer cannot buy.
Questions about Vermont arrest records
Related Vermont records
Vermont readers can continue with the Vermont background check guide for employer and school checks, Vermont court records for the Judiciary search and the Public Portal, Vermont inmate search for the Department of Corrections, the Vermont sex offender registry guide, the Vermont public records law guide, and the Vermont county pages for every police department and court.