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Section 165.84(1) of the Wisconsin Statutes, governing criminal records maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Justice states in part:
"Any person arrested or taken into custody and subsequently released without charge, or cleared of the offense through court proceedings, shall have any fingerprint record taken in connection therewith returned upon request"
Information may not be removed from the record maintained by the Department of Justice unless the person fingerprinted was not prosecuted or cleared of the offense through court proceedings.
Therefore, in order to have information removed from a criminal record, all offenses reported on an arrest fingerprint card must qualify for removal. To qualify the offenses must have been:
• Not charged by the prosecutor, or
• Dismissed in Court, or
• Not proven at trial and the defendant acquitted
Being convicted of a charge and placed on probation does not qualify for removal, unless at the completion of the term of probation, the court dismissed the charges.
If you had charges expunged by the court, this ruling has no effect on the criminal history maintained by the Department of Justice. Those charges ordered expunged still qualify for removal only if they meet the requirements of section 165.84(1). Expungement by the court under 72.06 of the Supreme Court Rules requires the following:
SCR 72.06 Expunction. When required by statute or court order to expunge a court record, the clerk of the court shall do all of the following:
(1) Remove any paper index and non-financial court record and place them in the case file.
(2) Electronically remove any automated non-financial record, except the case number.
(3) Seal the entire case file.
(4) Destroy expunged court records in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
Expungement by the court does not require notification of the Department of Justice and removal of information maintained in the criminal history file. "If notified, the Department of Justice does note in the disposition that the court ordered the record expunged. However the information may not be removed from the criminal record if any type of conviction resulted from the information reported on the arrest fingerprint card.
For those records that qualify for removal from the files of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be notified to remove the same information for those offenses that have been forwarded to the FBI.
There is no provision in Wisconsin Statutes to remove information in a criminal record upon reaching a specified time limit. Any information in the record that does not qualify for removal (and removal is requested) is maintained indefinitely.
A Fingerprint Removal Request form may be found on our website, www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/cib/forms (see online forms page).
online forms page
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