The State of Nevada is one of the few states that allow the public access to their Nevada criminal records. The Records and Identification Bureau under the Nevada Department of Public Safety is the central repository of Nevada criminal records. The purpose of the state database of Nevada criminal records is to provide centralized, complete and documented criminal justice information and statistics to the state's criminal justice community, the public, and many other authorized clients and contributors. Such information is then used in making informed public policy, criminal justice and regulatory decisions concerning crime and criminal offenders.

What Information is there in Nevada Criminal Records?

Pursuant to Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 179.070, Nevada criminal records are defined as:

“Record of criminal history” means information contained in records collected and maintained by agencies of criminal justice, the subject of which is a natural person, consisting of descriptions which identify the subject and notations of arrests, detention, indictments, information, or other formal criminal charge and dispositions of charges, including dismissals, acquittals, convictions, sentences, correctional supervision occurring in Nevada, information concerning the status of an offender on parole or probation, and information concerning a convicted person who has registered as such pursuant to chapter 179C of NRS. The term includes only information contained in memoranda of criminal justice in this state. The term is intended to be equivalent to the phrase “criminal history record information” as used in federal regulations.

Nevada criminal records stored in local databases contain pertinent personal information about a person. The information you get from them includes the subject's identification data, such as name, date of birth, social security number, sex, race, height, weight, et cetera. Also included in Nevada criminal records are arrest data, including the arresting agency, date of arrest, and charges filed.

Nevada criminal records may also contain the final judicial disposition data submitted by a court, prosecutor or other criminal justice agency and custodial information if the offender was incarcerated in a Nevada correctional facility.

Public Access to Nevada Criminal Records

Nevada criminal records are available for public access. Any person may request a copy of his or her Nevada criminal records or criminal history record or notice of absence of criminal history record from the Repository. This provision is stated in the NRS 179A.100.5 (b). The information provided will be based upon Nevada arrest fingerprint card submission to the Repository, as well as, dispositions. It should be noted that not all Nevada criminal records are accompanied by dispositions. This is because it was only 1987 that courts began requesting or including dispositions in the reports that they send to the Repository.