Des Moines County, Iowa Arrest Records Search

When you need to look up an arrest record in Des Moines County, the Iowa District Court’s unified filing system makes the task more straightforward than in most states. Every criminal case — misdemeanor through felony — is filed with the Des Moines County Clerk of District Court, located at 513 N. Main St., Burlington, IA 52601, and the docket index is searchable free of charge through Iowa Courts Online. The Clerk’s office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; department hours may vary, so confirm before driving. Booking records held by the Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office are a separate system — call (319) 753-8212 for records-request guidance.

If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Des Moines County inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.

Searching for records beyond Iowa

A nationwide criminal background search may help surface records from counties that don’t publish online — including cases filed before a county’s portal went live, records under a prior name, or charges in neighboring states that Iowa Courts Online will never index. The preliminary scan is free; a full report requires creating an account. This tool is one source among several and may not reflect every jurisdiction’s complete data.

Sponsored: Nationwide Criminal Background Check (we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you).

This tool is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and may not be used to screen anyone for employment, housing, credit, or any other purpose covered by that law.

How to look up arrest records in Des Moines County

Where do you go when you need an actual Des Moines County arrest record — not just a docket number? The answer depends on whether you want the court-side filing or the Sheriff’s booking entry, and those two records live in different systems with different custodians.

Iowa Courts Online — court docket index. The Iowa Courts Online case search is the fastest way to confirm whether a name appears in the Des Moines County District Court’s criminal docket. It requires no registration and no fee. Enter a name, select Des Moines County, and the index returns case numbers, filing dates, charge descriptions, and hearing entries. What it does not return: the actual documents. To read a complaint, information, or judgment, you must visit the Clerk’s public terminal at the Des Moines County Courthouse, 513 N. Main St., Burlington. The building is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Clerk of Court services there are reported to move quickly, but parking on the north side of the courthouse and on adjacent streets can be limited — plan accordingly. No weapons of any kind are permitted inside.

Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office — booking records. The Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office maintains booking records separately from the court docket. These include arrest date, charges at booking, and any booking photograph the agency holds. The Sheriff’s records office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call (319) 753-8212 to confirm what you need to submit and what payment forms are accepted — records requests accept cash, check, or money order. The Sheriff’s jail information page covers custody-related details. Note that the Sheriff holds the county jail; city police departments in Burlington and other municipalities make arrests, but those arrestees are typically booked into the county facility.

Iowa Department of Corrections — sentenced individuals. Someone serving a state prison sentence is no longer in county custody. The Iowa Department of Corrections inmate lookup covers the state prison system. If you’re unsure whether a person is in county jail or state custody, IowaVINE — run through the Iowa Attorney General’s office — tracks both layers and is the most efficient single custody check available statewide.

Practical note on portal lag. A new booking can take time to appear in any online system. If a name isn’t showing up in Iowa Courts Online immediately after an arrest, that absence doesn’t confirm there was no case — it may simply mean the filing hasn’t yet been entered. Call the Clerk’s office or the Sheriff directly to confirm current status.

Are Des Moines County arrest records public?

Iowa’s open-records law gives every person the right to examine, copy, and publish public records — and arrest information in Des Moines County falls squarely within that default-public category. The governing statute is Iowa Code ch. 22, which establishes the presumption of access and places the burden on the agency to justify any withholding.

That presumption has narrow but real exceptions. Sealed and expunged records do not appear in Iowa Courts Online and are not available through a standard public-records request — the court order removing them from public view is legally binding on the Clerk. Juvenile records are handled through a separate sealing process in juvenile court and are generally not accessible through the adult criminal docket at all. Victim-protection redactions are another category: in cases involving certain offenses, a court may order that identifying information about a victim — address, contact details, sometimes name — be redacted from publicly accessible documents, even when the underlying case record remains open. No specific case is required to illustrate this; it’s a routine procedural protection that applies across case types where victim safety is a concern.

Booking photographs are governed by the same open-records framework. Agencies differ in what they post online and what they release on request. For the Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office’s current practice on booking photo releases, call (319) 753-8212 — the policy isn’t published in a centralized online document.

When an agency delays a records request to evaluate whether a confidential record should be released, Iowa law limits that delay. Ordinarily it should not exceed ten business days, and it may not exceed twenty calendar days. That window applies to deliberation about confidentiality — it is not a general deadline for answering every routine request.

A name missing from Iowa Courts Online does not prove no case exists. Expunged records, cases filed before the portal’s online window, and records with restricted access simply won’t appear. The Clerk’s office at 513 N. Main St., Burlington is the authoritative source for confirming whether a case was ever filed.

What’s in a Des Moines County arrest record?

Depending on which system you’re looking at, the fields you see will differ — because the court record and the Sheriff’s booking record are built for different purposes and maintained by different offices.

Docket entries — the court side. When a criminal case is filed at the Des Moines County Courthouse, the Clerk of District Court creates a docket. The docket entries you’ll find through Iowa Courts Online include: the case number, the filing date, the charge or charges (described by statute and offense class), the names of the parties and attorneys of record, and a chronological log of every court event — hearings scheduled, continuances, motions filed, and dispositions entered. Disposition entries are particularly important: they show whether the case ended in a conviction, acquittal, dismissal, or deferred judgment. What the docket does not show is the full text of documents. To read the complaint, the minutes of testimony, or a sentencing order, you visit the public terminal at the Des Moines County Courthouse.

Booking entries — the Sheriff’s side. The Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office creates a booking record at the time of arrest. That record typically includes: the booking date and time, the arresting agency, the charges as stated at booking (which may differ from what the prosecutor later files in court), physical descriptors, and any booking photograph the agency holds. The booking record exists independently of the court docket — an arrest that never results in a filed case will appear in Sheriff’s records but may never generate a court docket entry at all.

The practical implication: if you’re checking whether charges were ever filed and how they resolved, Iowa Courts Online and the Clerk’s terminal at the Des Moines County Courthouse are your sources. If you want to know the specifics of the arrest itself — booking date, arresting agency, charges as stated at the time of booking — the Sheriff’s records office is the right call. Confirm numbers and hours before visiting or calling either office.

How to expunge an arrest record in Des Moines County

Petitioning to seal an arrest record in Des Moines County is a routine legal procedure, and Iowa provides distinct paths depending on how the case resolved.

Acquittals and dismissals. Iowa Code § 901C.2 governs expungement of cases that ended without a conviction. A case in which every charge was dismissed or resulted in acquittal can be expunged by filing an application in the Iowa District Court in Des Moines County — the same court where the case was filed. The waiting period is 180 days from the date of the judgment of acquittal or the order dismissing the case, measured from that court event, not from the arrest. The court may waive that 180-day period for good cause, so it is not an absolute floor. All costs and fees in the case must be paid before the court will grant the petition. After expungement under this path, the record is removed from Iowa Courts Online and is not accessible through a standard public-records request.

Misdemeanor convictions. A misdemeanor conviction can be expunged once more than eight years have passed since the date of the conviction — measured from the conviction itself, not from release or the end of any sentence. This path may be used one time in a person’s lifetime, though a single application may cover multiple misdemeanors that arose from the same incident. The path is closed to anyone previously granted two deferred judgments, and many offense types are excluded outright: drunk driving, domestic abuse assault, stalking, harassment, sex offenses, and weapons offenses are among those that cannot be cleared this way. File the application in the Iowa District Court in Des Moines County.

Deferred judgments. When a judge defers judgment and the person completes probation, the court record of that deferred judgment is expunged automatically on discharge — but not before every financial obligation in the case is paid. This applies to deferred judgments on felony charges as well as misdemeanors. No felony conviction can be expunged; the deferred-judgment path is the only route for felony-level cases, and it requires successful completion of probation.

What remains accessible after sealing. Expungement removes a record from public view — Iowa Courts Online will no longer show it, and the Clerk’s public terminal will not display it. Law enforcement agencies, however, retain access to expunged records for their own purposes. The record does not disappear from law enforcement databases; it disappears from public-facing systems. This distinction matters if you’re evaluating what a future background check will or won’t surface.

Filing and legal assistance. The filing fee for an expungement petition varies; confirm the current amount with the Clerk of District Court at 513 N. Main St., Burlington, IA 52601 before submitting. An indigency waiver path may be available — ask the Clerk. Many people file pro se (without an attorney), particularly on straightforward dismissal cases. For more complex situations — multiple charges, deferred judgments, or cases with contested fee balances — an attorney familiar with Iowa expungement practice can help. The Iowa State Bar Association attorney finder and the Iowa State Public Defender office locator are both available if you need representation.

Quick-contacts table

Frequently asked questions about Des Moines County arrest records

How do I find out what’s on my Des Moines County arrest record, and where do I go in person?

Run your name through Iowa Courts Online to see what the court docket shows — case numbers, charges, and dispositions for any Des Moines County District Court filing. That search is free and requires no account. To read the actual documents, visit the Clerk of District Court’s public terminal at the Des Moines County Courthouse, 513 N. Main St., Burlington, IA 52601, weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For the Sheriff’s booking record — which may include an arrest that never resulted in a filed case — call the Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office at (319) 753-8212 during the same weekday hours to ask about submitting a records request.

How do I get a Des Moines County arrest record expunged or sealed?

Iowa Code § 901C.2 is the controlling statute for most adult expungement petitions. A case that ended in dismissal or acquittal can be expunged by filing an application in the Iowa District Court in Des Moines County once more than 180 days have passed since the dismissal or acquittal order — and the court may waive that period for good cause. A misdemeanor conviction can be expunged once more than eight years have passed since the conviction date; that path is available one time per lifetime (though one application may cover multiple charges from the same incident) and excludes offenses such as drunk driving, domestic abuse assault, and sex offenses. No felony conviction can be expunged. File at the Clerk of District Court, 513 N. Main St., Burlington; confirm the current filing fee with the Clerk before submitting. After expungement, the record is removed from public view but remains accessible to law enforcement.