Utah Criminal Records

Utah keeps its state criminal history for the person it describes. The Bureau of Criminal Identification's Right of Access record is sold, since July 1, 2025 for $20, only to the subject, so no stranger buys a Utah rap sheet by name. The public record is the court's: one statewide system for the district and justice courts, searched through the judiciary's paid Xchange, with the initial police contact report open under GRAMA and a Clean Slate law that now expunges the smaller cases on its own. This page gives the Utah rule and the Utah search for each record, with government sources only.

The Bureau of Criminal Identification's criminal records page posts the price: "Due to legislation passed in the 2025 session, the following BCI fees will be increasing, effective July 1, 2025: Right of Access (Utah Criminal Record), new fee $20." The request page says who may ask: "Individuals may come into our office and obtain a copy of their own Utah criminal history. Fee is $20.00, payable in cash, personal check, VISA or MasterCard, money order, or cashier's check. A valid form of government issued picture ID must accompany the request," and the Bureau's list of Right of Access agencies, the police departments and sheriffs that also print the record, repeats the limit: "You may only obtain a copy of your own Utah criminal history, and not the histories of other individuals." Employers and licensing boards get the record through the fingerprint programs the statutes authorize, with the person's consent. So a Utah state record produced for a third party by name did not come from the Bureau; it came from a copy of the court index, and the criminal records page explains what such a copy misses and why a name match is not a person.

Felonies and class A misdemeanors are tried in the district courts and the lesser misdemeanors and infractions in the justice courts, and both feed the judiciary's Xchange, which the courts describe as "a repository of district court and justice court case information," searched by name or case number statewide. Xchange is a subscription; the fee page explains that "users are charged a fee to cover the costs of providing the Xchange service," and the search itself sends parties to their own cases free: "Are you looking for information on a case where you are a party? Try MyCase instead. MyCase lets you see your case information for free." The clerk of court in each district keeps the file and certifies copies, and the county pages on this site link the courthouses. A background check company's "Utah court record" is an Xchange pull on the date it was made, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

Utah expunges under Utah Code Title 77, Chapter 40a. The petition route runs through a certificate of eligibility from the Bureau, for a fee, then a petition under Rule 42 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure "in the court where the criminal case was filed or if charges were never filed, in the district court of the county in which the arrest occurred or citation was issued," with the waiting periods the chapter sets by class of offense, from a few years for a class C misdemeanor to longer for felonies, and the offenses it excludes. The courts' expungement guide is blunt about the effort: "There are 4 steps to asking for expungement. The entire process can take several months." The Clean Slate route, which the Bureau explains on its automatic expungement page, expunges acquittals, dismissals with prejudice and the lower classes of misdemeanor and infraction without a petition or a Bureau fee once the waiting period from adjudication has run and fines and restitution are paid, and it notes a transition rule, "per Utah Code 77-40a-204: between October 1, 2024 and January 1, 2026 an individual must submit the necessary form to the court to receive an expungement" of the cases the section covers. An expunged Utah record is removed from Xchange and the Bureau's file, and the person may respond to inquiries as though it did not occur, while a copy sold before the order keeps it until the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page, forces the correction.

Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act lists, in Utah Code 63G-2-301, the records that are public regardless of what an agency might prefer, and among them are "initial contact reports," the record a peace officer writes of the first response to a complaint or an arrest; the state archives' retention schedule for arrest reports classifies them in one word, "Public," citing "Initial Contact Report (UCA 63G-2-301(2)(g))." The investigative file behind the arrest is protected under 63G-2-305 while disclosure would interfere with the case, and police departments take the requests through their GRAMA pages, Salt Lake City's among them. Who is in custody is posted by the county sheriffs: the Salt Lake County Sheriff's prisoner search and the Utah County Sheriff's inmate search, which "will search all inmates, past and present in the last two years." The Department of Corrections' offender search draws its own line: "This search feature is only for those currently under the supervision of the Utah Department of Corrections. Those awaiting trial or who have yet to be sentenced and are housed in county jail facilities will not be listed here." Utah is also one of the states that bars a sheriff from handing booking photographs to anyone who will charge for their removal, covered on the arrest records page.

A Utah judgment lives eight years. Under Utah Code 78B-5-202, "judgments shall continue for eight years from the date of entry in a court unless previously satisfied or unless enforcement of the judgment is stayed in accordance with law," a judgment becomes a lien on the debtor's real property in a county when it is recorded with that county's recorder, and a small claims judgment is not a lien until it is recorded as the section provides. A creditor who wants more than eight years renews the judgment before it expires. The court records page covers where the judgment records and the county recorders' indexes are searched.

Utah is a single federal judicial district in two divisions under 28 U.S.C. 125. The Northern Division covers the counties of Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Morgan, Rich and Weber, with court held at Salt Lake City and Ogden. The Central Division covers Beaver, Carbon, Daggett, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Piute, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington and Wayne, with court held at Salt Lake City, Provo, St. George, Moab and Monticello. A federal case from any Utah county is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Utah state record: the Bureau answers it for $20, to that person only, and to no one else by name.

Whether a person was charged in a Utah court: Xchange answers it statewide, by subscription, for the district and justice courts.

Whether a person was arrested: the initial contact report is public under 63G-2-301, and the investigation behind it is protected while it is open.

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

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is off Xchange and the Bureau's file, a judgment lapses at eight years unless renewed, and a copy that predates the expungement is reached through the federal rule.