How to Get Your DC Criminal Record: MPD Arrest History and Court Dockets
Before you can file a motion to seal your DC criminal record, you need to know exactly what is on it. That means collecting your records from two separate sources: the Metropolitan Police Department and DC Superior Court. Skipping this step — or getting it wrong — can sink your petition before a judge ever reads it.
Why Record Gathering Comes First
DC Superior Court requires your motion to seal to list every arrest, charge, and conviction on your record. If you leave one out, the court will dismiss the entire petition without prejudice. You then have to start the process over, which means another round of waiting, filing, and service on the prosecutor.
The court does not compile this for you. You have to bring it.
Step 1: MPD Arrest History Report (Room 1075)
The Metropolitan Police Department maintains the most comprehensive local arrest database in the District. To get your complete arrest history, you must visit in person:
Where: MPD Records Branch, Criminal History Section, Municipal Center, 300 Indiana Avenue NW, Room 1075, Washington, DC 20001.
What to bring:
- A valid government-issued photo ID
- Your Social Security Number
- $7 in cash, money order, or credit/debit card
What to request: Ask specifically for the MPD Arrest History Report for Purposes of the Criminal Record Sealing Act of 2006. This is not the same as a standard PD70 Police Clearance. The PD70 is a general clearance letter — it confirms whether you have a public criminal record, but it does not include the level of detail your motion needs. The Arrest History Report lists every arrest, including non-convictions, "No Paper" dispositions, and cases that never resulted in formal charges. That comprehensive scope is what the court requires.
Processing: Processing time and walk-in availability can change; confirm current details with MPD before visiting.
The PD70 Police Clearance — Different Purpose
The PD70 is useful, but at a different stage. Many employers, licensing boards, and housing authorities request a PD70 to verify whether someone has a public criminal record. After your record is sealed and the 90-day agency compliance window has passed, requesting a new PD70 is one way to confirm that MPD has removed the sealed case from its public file.
But for the record-gathering step before filing, the Arrest History Report is the document you need.
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Step 2: DC Superior Court Docket Verification (Room 4001)
The court maintains its own records independently of MPD. Arrests that led to formal charges have docket numbers, disposition records, and sentencing details in the court's system.
Where: Criminal Records Division, DC Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, Room 4001, Washington, DC 20001.
What to do: Use the public access computers to search your full name and date of birth. Pull up every docket number associated with your name. Print or copy the disposition sheets and sentence completion dates for each case.
Cost: Printouts from the public terminal are $0.10 per page. Photocopies of court documents are $0.50 per page. Certified copies (which you may need for your motion) run $5 to $12 depending on the document type.
Special case — "No Paper" arrests: If an arrest did not result in formal charges (a "No Paper" or "Post & Forfeit" case), it may not have a standard docket number in the court's system. Ask the clerk in Room 4001 to assign a case number so you can reference it in your motion to seal. Without a case number, the court cannot process the sealing request for that arrest.
Cross-Check the Two Records
Your MPD Arrest History Report and your court docket records will not always match perfectly. MPD records arrests; the court records what happened after an arrest entered the judicial system. Compare both documents side by side and make sure every entry from MPD has a corresponding court record (or is documented as a "No Paper" case with no formal charges).
Discrepancies are common — a misspelled name, a missing docket number, or an arrest that appears in MPD's files but not in the court system. Identifying these before you file gives you the chance to resolve them, rather than having the judge flag them as an incomplete petition.
What You Cannot Get From These Sources
Both the MPD report and DC Superior Court dockets cover DC-level offenses. If you were arrested or prosecuted by a federal law enforcement agency (FBI, DEA, ATF, US Park Police, Secret Service) for a federal crime in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, those records are in a separate federal system. DC Superior Court sealing orders have no jurisdiction over federal records.
If your record includes both DC Code offenses and federal cases, you will need to gather federal records separately through the US District Court clerk's office.
The District of Columbia Expungement & Record Sealing Guide walks through the full record-gathering process with a checklist for each step — from requesting the correct MPD report to cross-referencing court dockets and handling "No Paper" cases that lack docket numbers.
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