Reading Your Identity History Summary

An Identity History Summary lists information drawn from fingerprint submissions the FBI has retained. [1] The unit of the record is the submission, not the incident: an event that generated no retained fingerprint submission generally produces no entry.

Contributing agency

The agency that submitted the fingerprints and the associated information to the FBI. Corrections to a disputed entry are pursued with the contributing agency, because the FBI reflects what was submitted to it. [2]

Disposition

The outcome of a criminal proceeding. An entry that records an arrest without a disposition means the FBI holds no submission recording the outcome — not that no outcome occurred.

Challenge

The procedure under federal regulation for disputing the accuracy or completeness of an identification record. [2]

To act on the contents of a summary, an applicant needs three things: the summary itself, the identity of the contributing agency for any entry in dispute, and documentation of the correct information from that agency.

1. 1

   Step 1: Read the summary against your own history

   Identify any entry that is inaccurate, incomplete, or not yours.

2. 2

   Step 2: Identify the contributing agency

   The summary identifies the agency that submitted each entry.

3. 3

   Step 3: Obtain the correct documentation

   Court dispositions, expungement orders, or agency records establishing the correct information.

4. 4

   Step 4: Submit a challenge

   Federal regulation sets out how the accuracy of an identification record is challenged. [2]

5. 5

   Step 5: Request an updated summary if needed

   Where a corrected record is required for a filing, a fresh request produces a summary reflecting the correction.

1. 1973

   Right of access and challenge established

   Department of Justice Order 556-73 creates both the right to obtain one's own identification record and the procedure to challenge its accuracy. [2]