North Dakota Police Reports: How to Get a Crash or Incident Report

North Dakota keeps its crash reports open by default, which puts it in a small minority of states. A crash report is purchased online through the North Dakota Department of Transportation for a flat $7 fee, while a general incident report from a local police department or sheriff's office follows the state's open records law. Body camera footage sits in a narrower spot than either: North Dakota has no standalone bodycam statute, only a single clause exempting footage taken in a private place.

This guide covers how to use each channel, what North Dakota's crash-confidentiality exceptions actually cover, and how far that private-place bodycam exemption really reaches.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Get a North Dakota Crash Report

North Dakota Century Code section 39-08-13 sets the default rule for who can see a crash report:

Except as provided in subsection 5, reports required to be forwarded by law enforcement officers and the information contained in the reports is not privileged or confidential.

That is a genuinely open starting point. North Dakota is one of a handful of states, alongside Nevada, New Jersey, Indiana, South Dakota, and New York, where a police crash report is not confidential by default.

The state's purchase system is a $7 flat-fee portal at ndcrash.primepublicsafety.com, run by the North Dakota Department of Transportation. To find a report, you need at least two of three identifiers, the driver's last name, the crash date, and the county where the crash happened, or you can search directly by the report number if you have it. A report is not available online until at least 10 days after the crash, and it only exists if the crash meets North Dakota's reportability threshold: an injury, a death, or roughly $4,000 or more in total property damage. A minor, no-injury wildlife collision, for example, does not generate a report regardless of the damage total.

Not everything on a released report is unredacted for every requester. Section 39-08-13 exempts a party's driver identification number, phone number, insurance company name and policy number, and day and month of birth from a general public request, but a party to the crash, that party's legal representative, or the party's insurer or the insurer's agent can get the complete, unredacted version. Note that the birth exemption covers the day and month only; the statute does not shield the birth year. A minor's name, driver identification number, and phone number get the same extra layer of protection unless the requester falls into one of those same categories. The fee for either version, redacted or complete, is capped at $7 by statute.

For crashes the State Highway Patrol investigated, you can also contact the Patrol directly; for crashes a city police department or county sheriff investigated, contact that agency.

How to Get a North Dakota Incident Report

Active criminal investigations are protected under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18.7:

Active criminal intelligence information and active criminal investigative information are not subject to section 44-04-18 and section 6 of article XI of the Constitution of North Dakota.

That exemption applies only while an investigation is active and only to the investigative work product itself, laboratory results, informant information, and surveillance details. The same statute lists what stays public no matter what: an arrestee's name, date of birth, address, race, sex, physical description, and occupation; the facts of the arrest and the arresting officer's name; conviction information; warrant disposition; a chronological incident list, sometimes called a blotter, showing the offense, date, time, general location, and a brief summary; a crime summary by classification; the radio dispatch log; and jail booking information. An arrestee's photograph is also public unless releasing it would hurt an active investigation.

North Dakota does not have a separate disclosure-versus-release framework like North Carolina's. A general incident report request goes to the North Dakota Highway Patrol for a state-investigated matter, or to the city police department or county sheriff for a locally investigated one, under the state's general open records law.

Body Camera Footage in North Dakota

North Dakota does not have a dedicated body camera statute, and its bodycam-specific rule is narrower than what most states have. The only clause in state law that names body cameras directly sits inside the same criminal-investigative-information section covering incident reports:

An image taken with a body camera or similar device and which is taken in a private place is an exempt record.

That single sentence is the entire bodycam-specific framework. It only exempts footage recorded in a private place, such as inside a home during a welfare check. Footage recorded somewhere public, like dashcam or bodycam video of a traffic stop on a public road, is not covered by this clause at all; it instead falls under the general active-investigation exemption discussed above while an investigation is ongoing.

Closing the case does not automatically open the footage, though. The same section carries several image exemptions that are not tied to an investigation being active: crime scene images of a homicide or sex-crime victim and any image of a minor victim of any crime (subsection 8); descriptions of crime scene images that include a minor or a minor victim (subsection 11); and any "sensitive image" as defined in N.D.C.C. § 44-04-17.1, meaning an image depicting an exposed intimate part, gruesome injury, deceased individual, or a minor (subsection 12). Public-place bodycam footage that falls into one of those categories stays an exempt record after the investigation closes.

Do not assume North Dakota has a comprehensive bodycam access law modeled on states like Illinois, Colorado, or South Carolina. It has one narrow carve-out for private-place recordings and otherwise treats footage like any other record a law enforcement agency holds. See our general guide to requesting body camera footage and North Dakota's body camera laws page for the broader legal picture.

Related Resources

• Police Reports by State covers the full 50-state picture.
• How to file a police report
• How to read a police report
• How to request body camera footage
• Are police reports public records?
• North Dakota body camera laws
• North Dakota car accident laws
• North Dakota public records laws
• North Dakota court records

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about North Dakota's police report and body camera access laws. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, portals, and forms change; confirm current details with the relevant state agency or law enforcement agency before relying on them. Consult a licensed North Dakota attorney about your specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.