Our approach to official court, sheriff, police, jail, and state repository sources for arrest records research.
Independent information: We are not a government agency, and an arrest is not proof of guilt.
Starting point
We identify the jurisdiction and the exact kind of record the reader needs. An arrest report may be held by the arresting agency; booking details by a jail; criminal filings by a court; consolidated history by a state repository. No single website reliably covers every record.
Preferred primary sources
Preferred references include .gov state and county pages, official court domains, sheriff and police records units, public access portals, agency FAQs, legal statutes, request forms and published fee schedules. A .gov extension helps but is not the only test: official jurisdictions sometimes use other domains.
What we test
Editors review whether a resource is public, registration or fee requirements, search criteria, jurisdiction limits, mobile accessibility, CAPTCHA/login restrictions, and whether results are current or historical. We do not represent access-restricted systems as freely accessible.
Conflicting information
When a third-party directory disagrees with an official custodian, official instructions normally control. If two official agencies differ, we identify the difference in record type, jurisdiction or date rather than inventing a universal procedure.
Third-party services
Commercial aggregators may contain delays, omissions, duplications, matching errors or old dispositions. When we discuss them, we explain that they are not substitutes for certified agency records and should not be assumed suitable for regulated screening.
Source links and updates
An external link is a navigation aid, not a claim of endorsement. Editors review links before publication and address reported changes, but availability and content remain controlled by the linked agency.