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About Iowa Criminal History

Iowa criminal records are divided among several public bodies. The Iowa Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Investigation maintains the central repository. Iowa Courts Online provides access to public court information, the Iowa Department of Corrections tracks state custody and supervision, and the Iowa Sex Offender Registry publishes releasable registry information. Sheriffs, jails, police departments, and district court clerks in Iowa's 99 counties retain the local source files. Iowa Criminal History was created to help readers identify the proper statewide system or county office without treating those separate records as one database.

Why We Built This Site

Iowa offers several public access routes, but each route answers a different question. Iowa DCI compiles fingerprint-supported criminal history submitted by agencies and courts. The Iowa Department of Corrections reports state prison and supervision information, while the Iowa Sex Offender Registry serves the public functions set by Iowa Code chapter 692A. Iowa Courts Online indexes public case information from the unified Iowa District Court. Original arrest reports, jail bookings, and many case documents remain with local custodians. Iowa Criminal History brings those statewide routes together and connects each county to its own local reference. Use the county directory when the sheriff, jail, police department, county attorney, or district court clerk holds the needed file.

What You Will Find Here

  • County access: a directory of all 99 Iowa counties for local court, sheriff, jail, and police sources
  • State system explanations: what Iowa DCI, Iowa Courts Online, the corrections locator, and the registry each contain
  • Court record guidance: ways to find and understand Iowa criminal court cases
  • Official record checks: how public and subject-review requests work through the Iowa DCI repository
  • Expungement context: where qualifying Iowa petitions are filed and why a court order may affect more than one record system

What We Cannot Do

Iowa Criminal History is a privately operated reference site, not part of Iowa DCI, the Judicial Branch, the Department of Corrections, a sheriff's office, or any other public agency. Those boundaries mean:

  • We do not issue certified court records, rap sheets, or other official copies
  • We cannot submit an expungement petition, public-record request, or court filing for a visitor
  • We do not retrieve a person's criminal history or conduct an official record check
  • We cannot interpret a charge, disposition, warrant, or Iowa statute as legal advice
  • We cannot promise that an agency's fee, address, telephone number, or procedure has not changed

An official copy must come from its custodian, such as Iowa DCI, the Iowa court that holds the case, or the county agency that created the record. Iowa Criminal History can identify a route, but it cannot supply the document.

Search Partners

Third-party providers power search boxes shown on some pages. Each provider controls its results, fees, subscriptions, and service terms. Iowa Criminal History may receive a referral payment when a visitor follows one of those tools and purchases a service. That support helps make the reference content available without a visitor fee. We do not set a partner's price or determine which records its system returns.