Iowa Criminal Records

Iowa is an open state twice over. The Division of Criminal Investigation sells a name search of the state repository to anyone for $15 a last name, online, and the judicial branch's Iowa Courts Online searches every one of the 99 counties' dockets free. The open records law goes further than most and says outright that "records of current and prior arrests and criminal history data shall be public records." The counterweights are an expungement chapter that seals dismissals and, once in a lifetime, an old misdemeanor, and a sheriff's booking page that shows only the day before. This page gives the Iowa rule and the Iowa search for each record, with government sources only.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety's record check page sets the terms: "The fee for an Iowa Criminal History Record Check through the DCI is $15 per last name. Each last name requested requires a separate form and payment." The state's how-to page adds what the search needs: "To request a background check, you need the person's first and last name, and date of birth. Providing other information such as gender, social security number, and middle name will assist with the search. Each background check costs $15," and the Division's online system takes the request and payment around the clock. Anyone may run it on anyone. What comes back is the public portion of the repository under Iowa Code chapter 692: Iowa convictions and deferred judgments still in force, and arrests with no disposition that are less than eighteen months old; an older arrest with no disposition, a completed deferred judgment and an expunged case are held back, and nothing from any other state is in it. It is a name and date of birth search, and the criminal records page explains why a name match is a guess; the fingerprint version is for the person's own review and the employers and licensing boards the statutes name.

The judicial branch runs one electronic docket for every district court in the state, and Iowa Courts Online searches it free by name or case number, statewide, with the charges, the case events and the disposition. The advanced case search is the paid tier: "You must register and pay a fee to subscribe to Iowa Courts Online to have access to Advanced Case Search." Felonies, indictable misdemeanors and simple misdemeanors are all district court matters in Iowa, heard by district judges, district associate judges and magistrates in the same system, so a single search reaches the traffic ticket and the felony alike; the clerk of the district court in each county keeps the file and certifies copies, and the county pages on this site link each courthouse. A background check company's "Iowa court record" is a copy of this docket on the date it was pulled, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses. The Polk County Sheriff's booking page says the rest for Iowa: "The Polk County Sheriff's Office does not provide case disposition. Disposition of cases can be searched here," with a link to Iowa Courts Online.

Iowa expunges under Iowa Code chapter 901C. Section 901C.2 covers acquittals and dismissals: "upon application of a defendant or a prosecutor in a criminal case, or upon the court's own motion in a criminal case, the court shall enter an order expunging the record of such criminal case if the court finds that the defendant has established that all of the following have occurred," beginning with a case in which "an acquittal was entered for all criminal charges, or in which all criminal charges were otherwise dismissed," 180 days after the acquittal or dismissal, with court costs paid, and the section "shall apply to all relevant criminal cases that occurred prior to, on, or after January 1, 2016." Section 901C.3 covers misdemeanor convictions, once in a lifetime, when "more than eight years have passed since the date of the conviction," with no pending charges, all costs paid and no prior expungement under the section, and it excludes the offenses the section lists, including most driving under the influence and sex offense convictions. Section 901C.1 covers a first public intoxication conviction after two years. An expunged Iowa case is removed from Iowa Courts Online and from the public copy of the repository, kept confidential for the court and law enforcement, and a copy sold before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page.

Iowa's open records law, chapter 22, keeps "peace officers' investigative reports" confidential under section 22.7(5) "if that information is part of an ongoing investigation," and then takes the arrest back out of that protection twice. Section 22.7(5) itself provides that "the date, time, specific location, and immediate facts and circumstances surrounding a crime or incident shall not be kept confidential under this section, except in those unusual circumstances where disclosure would plainly and seriously jeopardize an investigation or pose a clear and present danger to the safety of an individual," and section 22.7(9), which protects the criminal identification files of law enforcement agencies, adds that "records of current and prior arrests and criminal history data shall be public records." So an Iowa arrest is public on the day it happens, and the investigator's file is not. Who is in custody is posted by the sheriffs, and the Polk County Sheriff's jail and arrest information for Des Moines shows the pattern the arrest records page describes: a "current inmates" list and "bookings prior date, a list of inmates booked at the Polk County Jail on the prior date," with the warning that "record of an arrest is not an indication of guilt" and that anyone using the page "should verify accuracy through the arresting agency or Iowa Courts Online." State prisoners are in the Department of Corrections' offender search, which states that "offender records are public information pursuant to Section 904.601(1) Iowa Code."

The Iowa Judicial Branch's own judgment questions give the rule: "The statute of limitations for small claims judgments for execution purposes is twenty years, and liens on those judgments exist for ten years. See Iowa Code sections 614.1(6), 624.23(1), 626.2 and 631.12. However, a judgment can be renewed by filing a new action." The same sections govern district court judgments: under Iowa Code 624.23, a judgment is a lien on the debtor's real estate in the county where it is entered, and in other counties once an attested copy is filed there, for ten years from entry, and under 614.1(6) the judgment itself may be enforced for twenty years. The court records page covers where the judgment dockets and the lien indexes are searched.

Iowa is divided into two federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 95, each in divisions. The Northern District's Cedar Rapids Division covers the counties of Benton, Cedar, Grundy, Hardin, Iowa, Jones, Linn and Tama, with court at Cedar Rapids; its Eastern Division covers Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Chickasaw, Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette, Floyd, Howard, Jackson, Mitchell and Winneshiek, with court at Dubuque and Waterloo; its Western Division covers Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Crawford, Dickinson, Ida, Lyon, Monona, O'Brien, Osceola, Plymouth, Sac, Sioux and Woodbury, with court at Sioux City; and its Central Division covers Butler, Calhoun, Carroll, Cerro Gordo, Emmet, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Humboldt, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Webster, Winnebago, Worth and Wright, with court at Fort Dodge and Mason City. The Southern District's Central Division covers Boone, Dallas, Greene, Guthrie, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Polk, Poweshiek, Story and Warren, with court at Des Moines; its Eastern Division covers Des Moines, Henry, Lee, Louisa and Van Buren, with court at Keokuk; its Western Division covers Audubon, Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie and Shelby, with court at Council Bluffs; its Southern Division covers Adair, Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Lucas, Ringgold, Taylor, Union and Wayne, with court at Creston; its Davenport Division covers Clinton, Johnson, Muscatine, Scott and Washington, with court at Davenport; and its Ottumwa Division covers Appanoose, Davis, Jefferson, Keokuk, Mahaska, Monroe and Wapello, with court at Ottumwa. A federal case from any Iowa county is on one of those two dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has an Iowa record: the Division's $15 name search answers it, online, by name and date of birth, from the public portion of the repository.

Whether a person was charged in a county: Iowa Courts Online answers it free, statewide, and the clerk of the district court certifies the answer.

Whether a person was arrested: arrests and criminal history data are public records under section 22.7(9), and the immediate facts of an incident under 22.7(5).

Whether a person is in custody now: the county sheriff's inmate list answers it, and the Department of Corrections' search for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is off Iowa Courts Online and the public repository, a judgment lien lapses at ten years and the judgment at twenty unless renewed, and a copy that predates the expungement is reached through the federal rule.