North Dakota BCI Criminal History Check

What the BCI Record Actually Is

The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation — a division of the Attorney General's Office — maintains the state's centralized criminal history database. This is separate from court records. While courts maintain files for individual cases (charges, hearings, dispositions, sentencing), the BCI aggregates criminal history information from every law enforcement agency, court, and correctional facility in the state into a single record tied to your identity.

Your BCI criminal history record includes all reportable arrests, charges, and dispositions across North Dakota — not just the one case you might be thinking about. It captures bookings, charges filed, convictions, dismissals, deferred impositions, and probation or parole records. If fingerprints were taken at any point during an arrest or booking, the record is also linked to your biometric data.

This distinction matters enormously for record sealing. Under N.D.C.C. Chapter 12-60.1, a court order to seal a conviction prohibits public disclosure of the court and prosecution files — but it does not reach the BCI's executive branch database. Law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and professional licensing boards with statutory authority to run fingerprint-based checks under N.D.C.C. § 12-60-24 will still see the full conviction history even after a court sealing order is entered.

How to Request Your Record

The BCI offers two primary request mechanisms for individuals checking their own history.

Name-based search (SFN 50744). The Public Request for Criminal History Record Information form requires your full legal name, date of birth, and any prior names or aliases. The fee is $15 per search, payable by check or money order to the Attorney General's Office. Mail the completed form and payment to the BCI office in Bismarck. Processing typically takes 7-10 business days.

Fingerprint-based search. If you've used aliases or want a more comprehensive search that matches against biometric records, you can submit a fingerprint card along with the request. This option produces a more thorough result because it catches records filed under different names. The fee is the same $15, plus any cost for fingerprinting services (local law enforcement agencies typically charge a small fee to take prints).

You can also request your record through an authorized third party using Form SFN 51156, which requires your written authorization. This is useful if an attorney or advocate is handling your case.

Why You Should Audit Before Filing

The single most common reason record sealing petitions fail in North Dakota — outside of statutory ineligibility — is incomplete or inaccurate disclosure in the petition itself. Under N.D.C.C. § 12-60.1-03, the petition must include a complete chronological list of your entire criminal history across North Dakota, other states, federal courts, and foreign jurisdictions.

Petitioners who rely on memory routinely omit old arrests, out-of-state charges, or cases where charges were filed under a prior name. When the prosecutor conducts their investigation during the 45-day response window, any omission — even an honest one — can be flagged as a credibility issue. A judge weighing the clear and convincing evidence standard doesn't look favorably on a petitioner who appears to be hiding part of their history.

Ordering your BCI report before drafting the petition eliminates this risk. The report gives you the state's own version of your criminal history, and you can cross-reference it against court records from each jurisdiction to ensure nothing is missed.

What a BCI Audit Reveals About Your Chances

Beyond preventing filing errors, the BCI report helps you honestly assess whether your petition is likely to succeed.

Check these factors against your report:

Waiting period compliance. The 3-year (misdemeanor) or 5-year (felony) rule requires no new conviction for at least that period before filing — it is not measured from the date of conviction or release. Review your BCI report and court records for dispositions and later convictions before calculating whether you've cleared the minimum threshold.

Conviction-free period. Any new conviction within the applicable look-back period means you must wait until you have another uninterrupted 3-year (misdemeanor) or 5-year (felony) period before filing. Even a minor traffic misdemeanor that resulted in a conviction (not just a ticket) can disqualify you. The BCI report shows every disposition, so you can verify there's nothing lurking that you've forgotten about.

Pending charges. Active or pending criminal charges anywhere are an automatic bar to filing. The BCI report will show charges that haven't reached final disposition.

Excluded offenses. If the conviction requires sex offender registration or falls within the 10-year violent felony firearm ban period, the petition is categorically barred under § 12-60.1-02(2). Your BCI report confirms the offense classification.

This self-audit doesn't guarantee success — the judge still exercises discretion over the good cause determination and the presumption of open records — but it eliminates the most common grounds for denial: filing too early, omitting history, or petitioning on an excluded offense.

Getting the Full Process Right

The BCI record audit is step one of a multi-step process. Our North Dakota Expungement & Record Sealing Guide walks through the complete sequence — from ordering and interpreting your BCI report, through drafting the petition and proposed order, to serving the prosecutor and preparing for the hearing — with a criminal history audit worksheet designed to catch exactly the kinds of issues that derail petitions.

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