The Wisconsin Department of Justice keeps the Centralized Criminal History database through its Crime Information Bureau, and its background check page opens with the rule most states lack: anyone can access and obtain adult criminal history record information after paying the required fee. The single subject form repeats it in statutory terms, citing 19.35(1) and 165.82, and adds that the subject of the inquiry may be any person and that adult criminal history data held by the bureau is public, with juvenile information withheld unless a statute allows it.
The file is built from arrest fingerprint cards. Police agencies must submit prints for the offenses in 165.83(2)(a) and the bureau accepts cards for any other offense, so arrests, charges, court findings, sentences, DNA registrations and corrections admissions and releases are all tied to prints, and an arrest without supporting prints or a disposition without one is not in the database at all. The public window is the Wisconsin Online Record Check System, WORCS, which replaced the older INTCH system and takes requests from registered users and from the public without registration. For the sheriffs and clerks of circuit court who hold the arrest and the file, see the Wisconsin county pages.
- $12 on paper: the fee on form DJ-LE-250 for the public, government agencies and nonprofits, reflecting the $7 record check in 165.82 and the $5 surcharge for paper results, with ten business days plus mail.
- A police certificate, by mail only: the fingerprint based Wisconsin certificate most often needed for immigration or adoption cannot be ordered online and goes in by mail with a fingerprint card and a letter asking for a certified check.
- Two years: the time a dismissed or acquitted criminal case stays on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access after the final order, under the rule in force since March 30, 2018.
- Removable: arrest fingerprints for an incident that ended without charge, prosecution or conviction can be pulled from the Department of Justice file on form DJ-LE-250B.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Wisconsin's own systems: the Wisconsin Department of Justice criminal background checks page, the Wisconsin Online Record Check System, the WORCS frequently asked questions, the Department of Justice criminal history forms page, the single subject criminal history request form DJ-LE-250, the fingerprint record removal request form DJ-LE-250B, the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access frequently asked questions, Wisconsin Statutes section 973.015 on expungement, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections offender locator, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Ordering through WORCS or on paper
On WORCS a public user submits a request from the Public Access tab without an account, pays through the state's bank payment page, and must write down the order reference number from the bottom of the receipt to retrieve the result later; a registered user sees results on a dashboard, and both can view a result free for six months, after which the request must be bought again. Billing accounts are applied for inside the system and approved by Department of Justice staff.
The questions page and the site alert say the FBI portion of a fingerprint based check rises by $3 per search from October 1, 2026, and that a police certificate or statement of good conduct cannot be ordered online at all.
The paper route is the single subject form DJ-LE-250, or DJ-LE-250A for several names, mailed to the Crime Information Bureau Record Check Unit at P.O. Box 2688, Madison, WI 53701-2688 with a check or money order to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and a self addressed stamped envelope with enough postage, which must accompany every inquiry. The form lists $12 for a government agency, the general public or a nonprofit, which must enclose its 501(c)(3) ruling, with a state public defender fee exempt on a SPD number; the statute behind it charges $7 per record check, $15 for a fingerprint card check by a government or nonprofit requester, and a $5 surcharge for a paper copy of the results.
A caregiver check adds the $8 Department of Health Services fee and brings separate license and credential results from DHS and the Department of Safety and Professional Services. The form comes back stamped No Record or with the public record attached, in about ten business days plus mail time, and a social security number, though optional, is one of the identifiers the bureau uses to avoid wrong matches. The Wisconsin background check guide covers the caregiver law and employer checks.
Removing arrest fingerprints after a case collapses
Wisconsin does not need a court order to take an arrest out of the state file when it went nowhere. The fingerprint record removal request, form DJ-LE-250B, is filed by the person with two rolled inked fingerprints to prove identity, the court case number and charge taken from circuit court access, and supporting documents, and mailed to the Criminal History Unit. Removal is allowed when every offense on the arrest card ended with release without charge, no prosecution or acquittal, when a first offender program or deferred prosecution ended in dismissal with proof of completion, or for juvenile arrests with documentation of dismissal.
A conviction on any charge from the card, or on a lesser offense, blocks it. A successful request returns the card or deletes the electronic record and tells the FBI to do the same. Processing is quick when the court already reported the disposition and slower when staff must chase it, so copies of the dismissal speed things. The Wisconsin criminal records guide covers the challenge form DJ-LE-247 for records that are simply wrong.
Court expungement does not reach the Department of Justice
The removal form states the limit in a sentence: a court ordered expungement under section 973.015 does not qualify for removal from the state criminal history record because the case resulted in a conviction. Section 973.015 lets a judge order at sentencing that the record be expunged on successful completion of the sentence when the person was under 25 at the offense and the maximum penalty is six years or less, if the person will benefit and society will not be harmed.
The form, citing State v. Leitner, explains that such an expungement seals the court file but has no effect on Department of Justice files, and the circuit court site says the same from its side: expungement affects only the court record, and the case may still exist with the district attorney, the police, the Department of Transportation and the Crime Information Bureau. Removing arrest information from the state file likewise leaves court and police files untouched.
The two year rule on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access
Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, the site most people call CCAP, displays circuit court records on the internet under the Open Records Law and section 59.20(3). Its questions page records the decision of the Director of State Courts, effective March 30, 2018, that dismissed and acquitted felony and misdemeanor cases, dismissed small claims cases and denied or dismissed domestic abuse, child abuse and harassment injunctions are removed from the site two years after the final order, while the clerk keeps the paper file for the full retention period and shows it on request.
A criminal case with any charge dismissed but read in stays until the full retention period ends, now 75 years for a Class A felony, 50 for other felonies and 20 for misdemeanors, unless a court orders those charges dismissed outright. Cases also stay while a warrant is active, an appeal is open or money is owed. Full dates of birth show on criminal cases, only month and year on others. A person charged under a stolen or mistaken identity petitions on form GF-182A, ideally with the prosecutor's certification on GF-185, to have their name concealed on the online record, though the case number and file remain. The Wisconsin court records guide covers the site and each clerk of circuit court.
State custody and the county jail gap
The Department of Corrections offender locator holds people sentenced to prison or supervision, with location, status and release dates that the department warns can change quickly, and it excludes anyone sentenced only to county jail and all juveniles. A person booked by a sheriff after arrest appears on that county's jail roster and nowhere at the state until a conviction and sentence, which the Wisconsin inmate search guide covers county by county, and the locator's terms threaten prosecution and treble damages for anyone who uses it to harass the people listed.
The sheriff's file and the three copies of one arrest
One Wisconsin arrest leaves three records. The sheriff or police department keeps the incident report, the booking photograph and the fingerprint card it sent to Madison; the Department of Justice keeps the fingerprint supported history that anyone can buy; and the clerk of circuit court keeps the case that the public site shows. They diverge on purpose. The court site drops a dismissed case after two years and seals an expunged one, the Department of Justice drops a dismissed arrest only when the subject files DJ-LE-250B and never drops a conviction, and the police file answers to the public records law, covered in the Wisconsin public records law guide. For a person the sheriff is seeking, Wisconsin wants and warrants covers the sources.
Questions about Wisconsin arrest records
Related Wisconsin records
Wisconsin readers can continue with the Wisconsin background check guide for caregiver and employer checks, Wisconsin court records for the circuit court site and clerks, Wisconsin inmate search for prisons and county jails, the Wisconsin sex offender registry guide, the Wisconsin public records law guide, and the Wisconsin county pages for every sheriff and clerk of circuit court.