Maryland Criminal Records

Maryland searches every court in the state from one screen and gives the public nothing from its state repository. The courts' Case Search is where a Maryland criminal record is found; the Department of Public Safety runs fingerprint checks for the employers and purposes the law names and, in its own words, "cannot disclose any criminal history" to a caller. Since October 2024 the Clean Slate Act has been expunging records automatically. This page gives the Maryland rule and the Maryland search for each record, with government sources only.

The Maryland Judiciary's Case Search covers the district courts, which hear misdemeanors and the start of felonies, and the circuit courts, which try the felonies, across all 23 counties and Baltimore City, by name or case number, with the charges, the events and the disposition. The judiciary's own guide draws the line that matters here: for a "criminal background check," it says, "contact the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services," because Case Search is a court index, not a criminal history, and it omits the cases the law shields and the ones that have been expunged. A background check company's "Maryland criminal record" is a copy of Case Search on the day it was pulled, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

Maryland's Criminal Justice Information System Central Repository, at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, runs background checks by fingerprint for the employers, licensing bodies, adoption agencies and other purposes the statutes authorize, and for the person's own review. The Department's fingerprint services page notes that "fees are required to process each criminal background record check request," paid by card or, at the Department's own storefront, by check, plus "a $20.00 fingerprint service fee per customer." There is no public name search, and the Department says so plainly: "CJIS Customer Service cannot disclose any criminal history." A private company therefore has no route to the Maryland repository; what it sells is the court index.

Maryland expunges under Title 10 of the Criminal Procedure Article, and the General Assembly's Clean Slate Act of 2024, House Bill 658, "Criminal Procedure, Automated Expungement, Waiting Periods, and Adverse Actions," changed it in two ways from October 1, 2024: the waiting periods under sections 10-105 and 10-110 now run from completion of the sentence rather than from conviction, and the courts expunge many eligible cases automatically, without a petition. Charges that ended in acquittal, dismissal or nolle prosequi are expunged on petition at once or automatically after three years; convictions for the listed misdemeanors and felonies after the waiting periods the sections set, five, seven or ten years by offense. An expunged Maryland case is removed from Case Search and from the repository's response, and a copy that left before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records.

Maryland's Public Information Act, in the General Provisions Article, opens arrest records and police reports, and its section 4-351 lets a custodian withhold "investigatory records" where disclosure would interfere with a proceeding, as the Harford County Sheriff's request page explains, adding that "juvenile arrest records are not released without a court order." The Maryland State Police and the county departments take the requests. Who is in custody is in the Department's incarcerated individual locator, which "enables members of the public to learn the housing location of incarcerated individuals committed to the custody of the Commissioner of Correction," including Baltimore City's pretrial detainees, whom the state holds; the county detention centers, Baltimore County's among them, post their own. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A Maryland money judgment lasts twelve years and can be renewed. The Court of Special Appeals quoted the rule in a 2019 opinion: Rule 2-625 "provides: 'A money judgment expires 12 years from the date of entry or most recent renewal,'" and a judgment recorded and indexed in a county is a lien on the debtor's land there for the same period. The court records page covers where the judgment indexes are searched.

Maryland is a single federal judicial district, the District of Maryland, under 28 U.S.C. 100, in two divisions. The Northern Division covers the counties of Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico and Worcester and the City of Baltimore, with court at Baltimore, Cumberland and Denton. The Southern Division covers Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and St. Mary's, with court at Greenbelt. A federal case from any Maryland county is on that court's docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person was charged in Maryland: Case Search answers it, free, statewide, by name, with the docket and disposition, expunged cases left out.

Whether a person has a Maryland record at the repository: only the person, by fingerprint, or an employer or agency the law names.

Whether a person is in custody now: the Department's locator answers it for state facilities and Baltimore City, and the county detention centers for the rest.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is gone from Case Search and the repository, a judgment expires at twelve years unless renewed, and a copy that predates an expungement is reached through the federal rule.