Connecticut Criminal Records

Connecticut has no county governments, no county jails and no county courts, which makes it one of the simplest states to search and one of the strictest about what a search may show. Conviction information is public by statute for any purpose, from the State Police for $75 or from the Judicial Branch's free case look-up. Nonconviction information is not public at all, and since 2023 the state has been erasing old convictions automatically, with a duty on anyone who bought the court's data to erase them too. This page gives the Connecticut rule and the Connecticut search for each record, with government sources only.

Connecticut's rule is written into C.G.S. 54-142k: conviction information "shall be available to the public for any purpose," and nonconviction information, meaning arrests that ended without a conviction, is not disclosed outside the criminal justice system. The State Police Bureau of Identification sells the public version through the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection's criminal history record request form, whose menu reads "CT Only Criminal Conviction History Record Search, $75.00 (Name/DOB Search will provide a copy only if a record exists)," with a cheaper letter that states only whether a record exists, and a fingerprint search at the same $75 for the person's own record and for the employers and licensing boards the statutes name; the $75 is set by C.G.S. 29-11. What comes back is Connecticut convictions only, by name and date of birth: no arrests without conviction, no erased cases, no other state. It is a name search, and the criminal records page explains why a name match is a guess.

Every criminal case in Connecticut is tried in the Superior Court, in the judicial district and geographical area courts the Branch assigns, and the Judicial Branch's criminal and motor vehicle case look-up, reached from its case look-up page, searches pending cases and convictions statewide, free, by name, with the docket number, the court, the charges and the disposition. The Branch's law library keeps a public records page that gathers the state's other lookups in one place, the Department of Correction's offender information among them. Because there is one court system, a Connecticut search is not county by county; the clerk of the court where the case was heard certifies the file, and the county pages on this site link the courthouses by judicial district. A background check company's "Connecticut court record" is a copy of the Branch's data on the date it was bought, and Connecticut, unlike most states, tells the buyer what to do with it when a case is erased.

Connecticut erases rather than expunges, under C.G.S. 54-142a. A charge that ends in a dismissal, an acquittal or a not-guilty finding is erased at once, and a nolle is erased thirteen months after it is entered if the state does not reopen it. The Clean Slate law, Public Act 21-32, added convictions: eligible misdemeanors are erased seven years after the conviction and eligible class D and E felonies ten years after, without a petition, for convictions on or after January 1, 2000, with older ones erased on petition. The state's Clean Slate site states it: "The new Clean Slate and Cannabis erasure programs will automatically erase certain types of convictions beginning in 2023," and its eligibility page adds that "on January 1, 2023, certain cannabis convictions will be automatically erased. Other cannabis convictions and some older non-cannabis convictions can be erased if you submit a petition." An erased record is treated as if it never existed, the person may swear under oath that it did not, and the same chapter, in C.G.S. 54-142e, requires consumer reporting agencies and other purchasers of the Judicial Branch's records to update them so that erased cases drop out. A copy that keeps an erased Connecticut case is in breach of that duty and of the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page.

Connecticut's Freedom of Information Act answers the arrest question in C.G.S. 1-215, titled "record of an arrest as public record; prohibition on redaction; exemptions; disclosure of other law enforcement records." The record of an arrest, meaning the name and address of the person arrested, the date, time and place of the arrest and the offense charged, is public from the moment of the arrest and may not be redacted, and the agency must also release at least one of the arrest report, the incident report, the news release or a similar report, subject to the exemptions in C.G.S. 1-210 for a pending prosecution; the Office of Legislative Research's report on access to arrest records traces the line. Juvenile arrests and erased arrests are outside the section. Because the state runs every jail, who is in custody, sentenced or awaiting trial, is in the Department of Correction's inmate search, which the Department describes as "information regarding inmates currently incarcerated with the Connecticut Department of Correction," with further requests to its Office of Public Information; there is no county sheriff's roster to check. The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the state's system.

A Connecticut judgment lien on real property, recorded on the land records of the town where the property lies, "shall expire twenty years after the judgment was rendered, except any judgment lien recorded with respect to a small claims action shall expire ten years after the judgment was rendered, unless the party claiming the lien commences an action to foreclose it" within that time, under C.G.S. 52-380a, and C.G.S. 52-598 gives the creditor twenty years from the judgment to issue an execution and twenty-five to sue on it. Connecticut records land by town, not county, so a judgment lien search is a town clerk search, and the court records page covers where the civil judgments and the town land records are searched.

Connecticut is a single federal judicial district, the District of Connecticut, under 28 U.S.C. 86, and court is held at Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, New London and Waterbury. A federal criminal case from any of Connecticut's eight counties is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Connecticut conviction: the Judicial Branch's free look-up answers it by name, and the State Police's $75 search certifies it.

Whether a person has a pending Connecticut case: the same look-up answers it.

Whether a person was arrested and not convicted: the state does not disclose it; the arrest itself was public under C.G.S. 1-215 when it happened, and an erased arrest is treated as if it never occurred.

Whether a person is in custody now: the Department of Correction's inmate search answers it for every jail and prison in the state.

Whether an old case can still be found: an erased case is gone from the court and the State Police, a judgment lien lapses at twenty years, and a copy that keeps an erased case is reached through C.G.S. 54-142e and the federal rule.