Where to go
The Bureau of Criminal Identification is part of the Attorney General's office, at 4 Howard Avenue — the corner of Pontiac Avenue and Howard Avenue, in the Pastore Complex — Cranston, RI 02920.
The Customer Service Center is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the Attorney General notes that the fingerprint process stops at 4:00 p.m. A state background check costs $5.
What to bring
One valid photo ID. The Attorney General lists a valid state-issued driver's license, a valid state-issued identification card, or a valid United States passport.
Bring the $5 as well; in person it can be paid by credit or debit card.
Doing it by mail instead
If Cranston is not a trip you can make on a weekday, the Attorney General accepts mail requests. They ask for four things: a signed and notarized release form, a copy of a valid photo identification, a check or money order for $5.00, and a self-addressed stamped return envelope.
Allow 14 days for mailing and processing. Note the notarisation — that is the step that catches people out, because it means a trip to a notary before the trip to the post office.
Why you want it before you file
People are wrong about their own records more often than they expect, and the two fields they misremember are the two that decide everything: how the case actually ended, and the date the sentence closed. A charge someone remembers as "dropped" may be a filing, a dismissal, or a deferred sentence, and those are three different statutory paths with three different waiting periods.
The Judiciary's public portal is the free ten-minute version and it is the right first step — it tells you whether the trip to Cranston is worth making. But when you actually file, file from the BCI record.
What it does not tell you
A BCI record is a Rhode Island record. It does not show out-of-state cases, and it does not tell you whether you are eligible for anything — it is the raw material, not the answer.
Working out which statute governs what is on it is the next step, and the eligibility checker will do it with you in about two minutes, naming the section behind every answer.
