New York County, New York Public Records

Booking photographs in Manhattan are held by the arresting agency, almost always the New York City Police Department, or by the New York City Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, and neither publishes them. Under New York Public Officers Law 89(2)(b)(viii), releasing a law enforcement arrest or booking photograph is an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy unless the release serves a specific law enforcement purpose, so a FOIL request for one is normally denied. The court record of the arrest is public: the Criminal Court or the Supreme Court, Criminal Term, at 100 Centre Street, and the WebCriminal search linked above.

The New York criminal history record comes from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and is released through fingerprint based Record Review only: book an IdentoGO fingerprint appointment online or at 877-472-6915 with service code 15464Z (suppressed record) or 15465F (unsuppressed record); DCJS mails the rap sheet or a no record response. Fee: $17.50 (as of 2/2/2026) for New York residents fingerprinted at IdentoGO; $57.45 for those living outside New York State. Two searches open to anyone also exist: the court system's Criminal History Record Search, $95 a name for convictions in New York courts, linked above, and the NYPD Certificate of Conduct, a fingerprint based record of arrests in the five boroughs, $50 by appointment at One Police Plaza, Room 152-A.

Search the New York State Sex Offender Registry (DCJS), or every state at once on the National Sex Offender Public Website run by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Register with the Board of Elections in the City of New York, whose Manhattan office is at 200 Varick Street, 10th floor, (212) 886-2100, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays: online through the city's own registration portal, by mail to the Board at 32 Broadway, 7th floor, New York, NY 10004-1609, or in person at any Board office. A mailed form must be received no later than 10 days before the election you want to vote in. Voters elsewhere in the state register through the New York State Board of Elections instead. Check your registration on the Am I Registered page linked above or call 1-866-868-3692.

Deeds, mortgages and every other recorded land document in Manhattan are kept by the Office of the City Register, part of the NYC Department of Finance, and searched free in ACRIS from 1966 to the present, with document images, by address or by borough, block and lot. Assessed values, the Notice of Property Value and the tax bills come from the Department of Finance as well, not from a town or village assessor, because the county has no towns. The Manhattan City Register office is on the 13th floor of 66 John Street, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, and the Property Information Portal among the More sources shows the tax map and the assessment of any lot.

A birth or death in Manhattan is certified by the NYC Health Department's Office of Vital Records, not by the state: $15 a copy, ordered online through the office's contracted vendor with a $9.30 processing fee, by mail to 125 Worth Street, Room CN-4, Room 119, New York, NY 10013 with a $7.50 fee, or in person by appointment with a $2.75 fee. A birth certificate goes only to the person named or a parent on the record; a death certificate to the spouse, child, domestic partner or other entitled person, and the funeral director can order it for a year. Births before 1910 and deaths before 1951 are at the Municipal Archives, linked above. The New York State Department of Health holds the records of the rest of the state only, $30 a copy by mail.

There is no general city business license. A sole proprietor or general partnership trading under an assumed name files a business certificate with the New York County Clerk at 60 Centre Street, Room 109B, $100 to file and $10 a certified copy, in person or by mail; corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships are found in the New York Department of State, Division of Corporations database. The NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection licenses more than 45,000 businesses in more than 40 industries and its license check is linked above; state occupational licenses are checked with the Office of the Professions and the Department of State searches among the state sources.

Online and free through the court system's eCourts: WebCivil Supreme for Supreme Court civil cases, WebCriminal for Criminal Court and Supreme Court criminal cases by defendant name or case number, and NYSCEF for the documents in e-filed cases, all linked above. The paper and digitized Supreme Court files are at the County Clerk's Records Department, Room 103B in the basement at 60 Centre Street, 25 cents a page to copy; files from 1955 to 1984 are on microfiche. Felony files from 2014 on are also at the Criminal Term's Central Clerk's Office, Room 1000 at 100 Centre Street, (646) 386-4000.

Search the New York City Department of Correction's Person in Custody Lookup, linked above, by NYSID or book and case number or by first and last name; it gives the facility and basic case information. Manhattan has no borough jail in the Department's facility list apart from the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward at 462 First Avenue, so most people are on Rikers Island. The lookup does not cover police, state or federal custody: state prisoners are in the DOCCS Incarcerated Lookup and federal prisoners in the Bureau of Prisons locator, both among the sources above.

Ask the NYPD for a Verification of Incident, which is free: online through CityPay or by mailing form PD 542-061, picked up at any precinct, with a self addressed stamped envelope to the Criminal Records Section (Verification Unit). It is returned by mail or email only, never at Police Headquarters. A collision report is requested at the precinct where the crash happened within 30 days, or on the Collision Report Retrieval Portal for crashes after September 30, 2016; after 30 days it is held by the state DMV, requested on form MV-198C. Aided reports go by mail to the Aided Unit, One Police Plaza, Room 303.

From ACRIS, the City Register's online system, where every deed, mortgage and lease recorded in Manhattan since 1966 is viewable and printable free by address or by borough, block and lot. Older documents and certified copies come from the City Register's Manhattan office on the 13th floor of 66 John Street, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, by appointment made on the Department of Finance site. Recording a new deed costs $32 plus $5 a page and $5 for the cover page, and the Notice of Recorded Document Program mails an owner a notice whenever a document is recorded against the property.

From the Office of the City Clerk, which holds every marriage license issued in the five boroughs from 1950 to the present: $15 for the short certificate for domestic use and $10 for each further copy, $35 and $30 for the extended certificate for use abroad, plus a $5 search fee for the first year, by appointment through Project Cupid at the Manhattan office, 141 Worth Street, or by mail with the request form and a money order. A record under 50 years old goes only to a spouse, an attorney needing it as evidence, someone with a notarized authorization or anyone presenting both spouses' death certificates. Marriages from 1866 to 1949 are at the Municipal Archives, 31 Chambers Street, Room 103.

File it on NYC OpenRecords, linked above, after creating a free NYC account, choosing the agency that holds the record; the Health Department, NYCHA, Health and Hospitals and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor take requests their own way. The agency acknowledges the request within five business days and says how long it will need, and a denial is appealed in writing to that agency's appeals officer. The NYPD also takes written requests at its Legal Bureau FOIL Unit, One Police Plaza, Room 110-A, and the Manhattan District Attorney at One Hogan Place. Court records are not covered by FOIL and come from the County Clerk and the courts.

Civil cases above $50,000 and divorces are in the Supreme Court, Civil Term, at 60 Centre Street, with courtrooms also at 80 Centre Street, 111 Centre Street and 71 Thomas Street; felonies in the Supreme Court, Criminal Term, and misdemeanors and arraignments in the Criminal Court, both at 100 Centre Street; claims up to $50,000, small claims up to $10,000 and landlord and tenant cases in the Civil Court at 111 Centre Street; family matters at 60 Lafayette Street; estates at the Surrogate's Court, 31 Chambers Street; summonses at 1 Centre Street, 16th floor; and appeals at the Appellate Division, 27 Madison Avenue, or the Appellate Term, Room 401 at 60 Centre Street. All eleven buildings are listed with their addresses above.

Only the next of kin, a government agency or an officer of the court may have it. A family member files the Office of Chief Medical Examiner's records request web form or mails the paper form, one request for each person, and the signature is notarized if the report is to go to a lawyer or an insurer; the Records Department answers on (212) 323-1777. A report can take three to six months or more while the autopsy is finalized. The death certificate itself comes from the NYC Health Department, not the Medical Examiner, whose Manhattan center is at 520 First Avenue.

At the Department of Buildings, in two systems: the Buildings Information System holds the permits, complaints, violations and job applications created before DOB NOW, and the DOB NOW Public Portal holds everything filed since, including certificates of occupancy; both are reached from the Building Data card above. Plans, folders, microfilm and docket books are requested in advance through DOB NOW: BIS Options and picked up at the Manhattan borough office, 280 Broadway, whose record room is on the 3rd floor and whose counters are open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, (212) 393-2614.

Open the most recent deed in ACRIS, the City Register's free document search, by address or by borough, block and lot; the grantee on that deed is the owner of record, and the mortgages and liens recorded since are in the same list. The Property Information Portal, among the More sources, shows the lot on the digital tax map with its assessed value and the recent recordings, and the Department of Finance's assessment roll files list every lot in the city. A property tax bill is addressed to the owner or the bank that pays it.

In the Southern District of New York, whose two Manhattan courthouses are the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, (212) 805-0136, and the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, (212) 857-8500, both with clerk's offices open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the dockets are on PACER. Bankruptcy cases for New York and Bronx counties are heard by the Manhattan division of the United States Bankruptcy Court at One Bowling Green, in the Alexander Hamilton Custom House, open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., (212) 668-2870, with government identification required to enter.

Because the county and the Borough of Manhattan are the same ground inside the City of New York, so the work a town or county government does elsewhere is done by city agencies: the Department of Finance records deeds and assesses property, the Health Department issues birth and death certificates, the City Clerk issues marriage licenses, the Police Department polices the borough and the Board of Elections registers voters. What remains at county level is the New York County Clerk, the District Attorney, the Surrogate's Court and the Supreme Court sitting for the county, and the Manhattan Borough President appoints the 12 community boards.

From the court that decided the case. For a felony, the Supreme Court, Criminal Term's Central Clerk's Office, Room 1000 on the 11th floor of 100 Centre Street, (646) 386-4000, prepares certificates of disposition and certifies court documents, with an ancillary clerk's office at 111 Centre Street, Room 927, (646) 386-4300; for a misdemeanor, the Criminal Court clerk's office in the same building, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., (646) 386-4511. The statewide Criminal History Record Search is not a substitute: its $95 report is not certified and only the court of original jurisdiction can issue the certificate.

The New York County Clerk's Notary Department, Room 141B at 60 Centre Street, (646) 386-5932, notarizes up to five English language documents for anyone with government photo identification, though not wills, trusts or deeds. It also authenticates the signature of a notary qualified in New York County or of a public official on file, $3 a document, in person or by mail to the same room, and a long form birth or death certificate with its letter of exemplification counts as one document. The authenticated paper then goes to the New York State Department of State at 123 William Street, 19th floor, for the apostille, $10.