The Washington State Patrol Identification and Criminal History Section keeps the state file, built from fingerprint arrest cards and court dispositions, and its criminal history page divides the audience in two. Certified criminal justice agencies receive the unrestricted record. The public receives conviction information only, plus arrests less than one year old with dispositions pending and the registered sex and kidnapping offender file, under the Criminal Records Privacy Act in chapter 10.97 RCW.
The WATCH site is where the public buys that view, $11 per name and date of birth regardless of outcome, by card or a pre established account, with a notarized letter for $15 more. The site says vacated cases, sealed records and misdemeanor traffic violations are excluded, that the file may hold arrest records not open to the general public, and that the law requires it to keep the name of every requester, the target of the search and the date. For the county jails and the superior court clerks who hold the arrest itself, see the Washington county pages.
- $11, $32 or $58: the WATCH online check, the name and date of birth request by mail or at the Olympia counter, and the fingerprint card search, each for conviction data.
- One year: an arrest with no disposition is public only while it is less than a year old; after that it is non conviction data and leaves every public report.
- $12 or free: a fingerprint card and $12 brings a copy of your own non conviction record by mail, and a 30 minute in person record review in Olympia costs nothing.
- Two or three years: the point at which RCW 10.97.060 lets the subject have non conviction data deleted, counted from a favorable disposition or from the arrest.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Washington's own systems: the Washington State Patrol criminal history page, the WATCH background check site, RCW 10.97.030, the Criminal Records Privacy Act definitions, RCW 10.97.060 on deletion of non conviction data, the Washington courts search site, the Washington courts name and case search page, the Department of Corrections page on secretary's warrants, the Department of Corrections warrant search, the Department of Corrections incarcerated search, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Reading a WATCH result
A WATCH search returns a candidate list of records that match or closely match, a NO RECORD or NO EXACT MATCH FOUND answer meaning no conviction record fits, a possible DUPLICATE MATCH when two or more exact names or birth dates collide, Exact Match Available when one candidate matches both, or Pending when the State Patrol must review the result, usually within 24 to 48 hours. The State Patrol is candid that a name and date of birth search cannot guarantee the record belongs to the person sought and that only fingerprints can; the file itself is linked by fingerprints, so an arrest under a false name still attaches to the true record.
A requester who doubts a RAP sheet puts the subject's right thumbprint on the lower right corner of the report and mails it with a letter to the Identification and Background Check Section at P.O. Box 42633, Olympia, WA 98504-2633, and the comparison is free. Billed and non profit accounts are applied for by mail or email to the WATCH help desk, and the Washington background check guide covers the fingerprint checks required for care and school work.
Mail, counter and fingerprint requests
Away from the website the same conviction search costs more. A Request for Conviction Criminal History form with a name and date of birth costs $32 by check, money order or bankcard authorization by mail, or $32 by cash, check or card at the Olympia office at 106 11th Avenue SW, Suite 1300. A fingerprint card search costs $58 either way, and a notarized letter adds $15. The office takes prints weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a lunch closure from noon to 1 p.m., for $16 with government photo identification, arriving by 4:30, and children may not enter the fingerprint room.
The State Patrol describes the advantage over an internet vendor plainly: private products link records by name alone, while the state system connects arrests through fingerprints and can clear a person who disputes an entry by comparing a thumbprint.
Your own non conviction record and the record review
The arrests the public cannot see are available to the person they concern. A fingerprint card and $12 mailed to the Olympia post office box brings a copy of the non conviction criminal history, returned to the address on the card and marked for personal use only. In person, the Criminal History Records Section offers a record review with no fee: the person is fingerprinted to establish identity and may inspect the complete record, non conviction data included, for up to 30 minutes, only at the Olympia office.
A person in custody has the jail or prison submit a fingerprint card marked Record Review or Challenge, and the section sends the transcript to the facility for inspection at no charge. A challenge or modification goes on the Request for Modification of Record form, and if substantiated the section corrects the record and may send the correction to anyone who received the old version.
Deleting non conviction data under RCW 10.97.060
RCW 10.97.030 defines non conviction data as every record of an incident that did not lead to a conviction or other adverse disposition and in which proceedings are no longer pending, with a presumption that they are no longer pending once a year has passed with no disposition; a dismissal after probation or a deferral, and an acquittal by insanity, count as adverse. RCW 10.97.060 then lets the subject ask that such data be deleted from the files agencies search when answering inquiries, once two years have passed since a favorable disposition made it non conviction data, or three years since the arrest, citation or warrant where no conviction followed, unless the person is a fugitive or the prosecutor certifies the case active.
The agency may refuse when the disposition was a deferred prosecution, the person has a prior felony or gross misdemeanor, or there was another arrest in between. The State Patrol takes the request on its Request for Expungement Deletion of Non Conviction Records form, publishes a checklist, and warns that the deletion reaches state and FBI files but not local police records. Everything else stays for the maximum state record retention period.
Vacated convictions, sealed juveniles and the courts search
Court orders change the State Patrol file in defined ways. A vacated conviction has its guilty status replaced by vacated and leaves public dissemination, though the FBI still reports it on a fingerprint check. A sealed juvenile case leaves public view; a destroyed juvenile record is physically destroyed and cannot return. A dismissal, acquittal or decision not to prosecute becomes non conviction data, visible to criminal justice agencies for the full retention period.
A restoration of firearm rights is noted against the case and sent to the FBI, though the State Patrol does not decide who may buy a gun. The courts' own search site, which covers municipal, district, superior and appellate cases and updates within 24 hours, answers its own question about criminal records with a flat no: the State Patrol holds criminal history, and the search results only point to the court record, which must be read at the court.
The Washington court records guide covers that site, the Odyssey portal counties and the King and Pierce county systems.
Compromised identity, warrants and custody
When someone gives another person's name and birth date at arrest, that name becomes part of the thief's record, and a background check on the victim returns a hit. The State Patrol's answer is the same fingerprint logic in reverse: the victim submits a Request for Modification of Record, is fingerprinted to prove who they are, and once the challenge is substantiated the section corrects the record and may send the correction to anyone who received the old version.
The Department of Corrections publishes a warrant search of people under its supervision with an outstanding secretary's warrant for a community custody violation, listed publicly once the warrant has been open longer than 60 days under RCW 9.94A.716 and its policy 380.200, with photographs, and people released to immigration for deportation listed indefinitely; the incarcerated search covers the prisons. The county sheriff holds the jail roster, the booking record and the arrest report, which the State Patrol file does not contain.
Washington wants and warrants and the Washington inmate search guide cover those sources, and the Washington criminal records guide maps every office.
Questions about Washington arrest records
Related Washington records
Washington readers can continue with the Washington background check guide for fingerprint checks in care and school work, Washington court records for the courts search and county portals, Washington inmate search for prisons and county jails, the Washington sex offender registry guide, the Washington public records law guide, and the Washington county pages for every sheriff and clerk.