Indiana Criminal Records

Indiana searches nearly every court in the state from one screen and sells a state name check for $15 that the State Police describe, in their own words, as incomplete. That combination makes Indiana a state where the court search is the better record and the state check is the cheaper one. This page gives the Indiana rule and the Indiana search for each record, with government sources only.

The Indiana courts' MyCase search, "Odyssey Public Access," covers, in the judiciary's guide, "courts that use the state's Odyssey case management system, which is most courts across the state," and "anyone may search mycase.in.gov for public (non-confidential) case information." Felonies are circuit and superior court cases, misdemeanors are the same courts' lower dockets and the city and town courts, and MyCase finds them by name with the charges, the hearings and the disposition, subject to the rule the site states: "electronic access to court information is restricted by federal and state law in addition to court rules and orders." The courts not on Odyssey, and the older cases the guide calls "converted events," are searched at the clerk. A background check company's "Indiana criminal record" is usually a copy of MyCase on the day it was pulled, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

The Indiana State Police sell a limited criminal history search online for "$15.00 per record," and describe it precisely: "A Limited Criminal History contains only felonies and class A misdemeanor arrests within the state of Indiana. Completeness of this information is based upon county participation." The search, per the State Police's service page, "is based upon a subject's name, date of birth, race, and gender, and if needed, Social Security Number and place of birth." Anyone may run it on anyone. Its limits are its own words: arrests, not dispositions in every case; felonies and Class A misdemeanors only; and only the counties that report. The full fingerprint-based record is for the person's own review and for the employers and licensing bodies the statutes name.

Indiana expunges under Indiana Code chapter 35-38-9, the second chance law, on a schedule that runs from the end of the case: an arrest or charge that did not end in a conviction one year after the arrest, a misdemeanor conviction five years after the conviction, a minor felony eight years after, and more serious felonies eight or ten years after with the prosecutor's consent, with the violent and sex offenses the chapter lists excluded, and one petition in a lifetime covering all eligible convictions. A conviction expunged under the chapter is sealed or marked expunged in the court and the State Police records and may be denied on an application, and the chapter forbids an employer to ask about or use it. A copy that left before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records.

Indiana's Access to Public Records Act requires every law enforcement agency to keep a daily log or record of arrests and incidents that is public, listing the person arrested, the age and address, the charge, the time and place of the arrest and the arresting agency, while the investigatory records themselves are the agency's to withhold. Who is in custody is in the Department of Correction's incarcerated database search for state prison and in the statewide county jail public portal, which covers the county jails that participate and warns that "information on this site may not reflect the most current status of an individual's case"; Marion County runs its own inmate lookup for Indianapolis. The arrest records page covers the rest.

An Indiana judgment entered on the county's judgment docket is a lien on the debtor's real property in that county, and, as the state's own enforcement manual puts it, "a judgment lien is valid for ten (10) years"; the judgment itself may be enforced for twenty years and renewed. The court records page covers where the judgment dockets are searched.

Indiana is divided into two federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 94. The Northern District sits at Fort Wayne for Adams, Allen, Blackford, De Kalb, Grant, Huntington, Jay, Lagrange, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley; at South Bend for Cass, Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, La Porte, Marshall, Miami, Pulaski, St. Joseph, Starke and Wabash; and at Hammond and Lafayette for Benton, Carroll, Jasper, Lake, Newton, Porter, Tippecanoe, Warren and White. The Southern District sits at Indianapolis and Richmond for Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Clinton, Decatur, Delaware, Fayette, Fountain, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Tipton, Union and Wayne; at Terre Haute for Clay, Greene, Knox, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermilion and Vigo; at Evansville for Davies, Dubois, Gibson, Martin, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick; and at New Albany for Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lawrence, Ohio, Orange, Ripley, Scott, Switzerland and Washington. A federal case from any Indiana county is on one of those dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person was charged in Indiana: MyCase answers it, free, by name, for most courts in the state, with the docket and disposition.

Whether a person has a record at the State Police: the $15 limited criminal history answers it, felonies and Class A misdemeanor arrests only, for the counties that report.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county jail portal and the county's own lookup answer it, and the Department of Correction for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is sealed at the court and the State Police, a judgment lien lasts ten years, and a copy that predates an expungement is reached through the federal rule.