Can anyone look up a Florida criminal record?

Yes, for adult records from Florida sources. Under s. 943.053(3)(a), F.S., the private sector can obtain that information from FDLE by providing identifying details and paying the statutory fee of $24 per name.

Is the FDLE Instant Search result official?

It is FDLE data, but FDLE states that Instant Search results are not certified. A certified result is available through FDLE’s Certified/Non-Certified Search option.

Why does someone I know was arrested show no record?

The record may have been sealed or expunged by court order. Sealed and expunged records are confidential under s. 943.059 and s. 943.0585, F.S., and the person may lawfully decline to acknowledge them outside the listed exceptions. It may also be an out-of-state or federal case.

Are online people-search sites reliable for criminal records?

Treat them as leads. They can attach records to the wrong person, omit outcomes or lag behind the courts. Confirm anything important against FDLE and the clerk’s court file in the county where the case was brought.

Can a private investigator find a sealed record?

No. Sealed records are available only to the people and agencies the statute lists, and expunged records retained by FDLE are released only on court order. Anyone offering otherwise is offering something unlawful.

How to Check Someone's Criminal Record in Florida

Whether it is a new partner, a roommate, someone spending time around your children or a person you are about to go into business with, “does this person have a record?” sounds like a yes-or-no question. In Florida it rarely is. Criminal history sits in several places, each source answers a slightly different question, and some records are legally invisible for good reason. This guide is narrowly about criminal records: where to look, how to read what you find, and when it is worth having a professional confirm it. For the wider picture of what a full background check covers, see background checks in Florida: what a licensed PI can find.

Where Florida criminal records actually live

The state repository. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Criminal Justice Information Services division describes itself as the central repository for criminal history information for the state, and offers a public search.
County clerk court files. The charging documents, dockets and dispositions of criminal cases are held by the clerk in the county where the case was brought. In Broward, that is the Broward County Clerk of Courts.
Federal courts. Federal prosecutions are in a separate system altogether.
Other states. A person who has lived elsewhere may have a history that no Florida source will show.

The FDLE public search

Florida law allows people in the private sector to obtain adult criminal history information compiled from in-state sources, after providing the known identifying information about the person and paying the fee set by statute (s. 943.053(3)(a), F.S.). That fee is $24 per name (s. 943.053(3)(e)). FDLE’s Florida criminal history record check page offers an Instant Search, with results available immediately but not certified, and a Certified/Non-Certified Search processed by FDLE staff, whose results can be notarized and are returned by mail. Both are paid by debit or credit card at the time of the request. FDLE’s separate Personal Review service is only for people checking their own record or their attorneys; anyone checking another person uses the name-based public search.

Reading an FDLE result carefully

The FDLE search is a genuinely useful starting point, but its limits are built in:

It is name-based. The search runs on the identifying details you provide. A common name, a wrong date of birth or a different spelling can produce someone else’s history — or miss the right person’s.
It is Florida only. The statute speaks of information compiled from intrastate sources. Out-of-state and federal history is outside it.
Juvenile history is mostly confidential. Juvenile records are released only in the felony-level situations the statute lists (s. 943.053(3)(b)).
An arrest is not a conviction. The outcome — dropped, dismissed, acquitted, withheld, convicted — is what matters, and that detail lives in the court file.

What county clerk records add

The court file is where an entry becomes a story. A clerk docket shows the charge actually filed (which may differ from the arrest charge), the dates, any plea, the disposition and the sentence or conditions imposed. It also shows whether a case is still open. The catch is geography: each county keeps its own files, so a person who has lived in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach needs three searches, and a person who lived in Georgia needs another. Knowing someone’s address history is what tells you which counties to check.

What instant online searches miss

Commercial “people search” sites assemble data from many sources of uneven quality. Common problems include records attached to the wrong person with a similar name, arrests with no disposition, stale data that has not caught up with later court outcomes, and gaps where a county’s records were never collected. A result from one of these sites is a lead to verify, not a finding. And if a check is for hiring or renting, separate federal consumer-reporting rules apply; our post on tenant background screening covers that context.

Sealed and expunged records

Some people with past arrests will show no record, and that can be entirely lawful. When a court orders a record expunged, agencies must destroy it, except FDLE, which retains it as confidential and available only on a court order (s. 943.0585(6)(a), F.S.). When a record is sealed, it is confidential and available only to the person, their attorney, criminal justice agencies, judges and a list of specified licensing and employment entities (s. 943.059(6)(a), F.S.). In both cases the person may lawfully deny or decline to acknowledge the arrests covered, subject to exceptions such as applying to a criminal justice agency, to The Florida Bar, or for certain positions working with children, the elderly or the disabled (s. 943.0585(6)(b); s. 943.059(6)(b)).

The practical point: a private individual, and a private investigator, has no lawful route to a sealed or expunged record. Anyone offering to find one should be avoided.

Hypothetical example: an online search attaches a battery arrest to a new business partner. A name-based FDLE search returns a record under the same name with a different date of birth. The Broward Clerk docket for that case lists a defendant with a different middle name and an address in another city. Once the partner’s identifiers are confirmed and their address history checked, the arrest belongs to someone else. The useful result was not “a record” or “no record” — it was knowing whose record it was.

When a licensed investigator’s verification is worth it

Identity is uncertain — a common name, an alias, a missing date of birth.
The person has lived in several counties or states, so one search will not cover their history.
A record has turned up and you need the outcome, not just the arrest, read from the court file.
The stakes are high — children, an elderly parent, a significant investment or a shared home.

Our background reports and background investigations pages describe how that verification is scoped.

Using what you find responsibly

A criminal record is a fact about the past, and it needs context before it drives a decision. How long ago was it? What was the outcome? Does it bear on the situation in front of you — an old driving offence says little about whether someone is safe around children, while a recent fraud conviction says a great deal about a business partner. Keep results to the people who genuinely need them, and do not post or circulate them. If what you found changes your plans, a calm, private decision usually serves you better than a confrontation, particularly where safety is a concern.

What to bring

Full legal name, any other names used, and date of birth if you have it.
Current and past addresses, including other states.
Any search result you have already seen, so it can be confirmed or ruled out.
Why you need the answer, which decides how deep the check should go.

Broward Private Investigations works with licensed Florida private investigators across Broward County. Contact us for a confidential consultation.