Alabama Arrest Records and Warrant Search

Alabama law makes arrest records public, but the records themselves are not in one place. They are spread across 67 county Sheriff’s offices and Clerks of Court, each running its own booking and case-filing system, plus a handful of separate statewide portals that cover courts, corrections, and law enforcement. A search that works in Jefferson County will not automatically surface anything in Mobile or Madison. This site maps that landscape — identifying which official source holds which type of record and routing you directly to it, so you spend less time guessing and more time finding.

What you can look up here

Three types of records drive most searches on this site.

Arrest records are booking records created when a person is taken into custody at a county jail. They typically include the person’s name, date of birth, the charges listed at booking, and the arresting agency. These records live with the Sheriff’s office or the county jail that processed the booking, and separately with the Clerk of Court once a case is filed. The county pages here link to both.

Active warrants are court orders authorizing an arrest. Checking whether one exists is a legitimate use of public records. If a search turns up an active warrant, the right move is to contact an attorney before taking any other step — not to ignore it, and not to walk into a courthouse unadvised.

Inmate and jail lookups answer a simpler question: is this person in custody right now? County jails post current rosters through their Sheriff’s office websites. For someone serving a sentence in a state prison rather than a county facility, the Alabama Department of Corrections maintains a separate inmate locator.

The county-by-county index below this page leads to a dedicated page for each of Alabama’s 67 counties, with direct links to that county’s official sources.

Where Alabama records actually live

Understanding the split between county and state systems saves real time.

At the county level, the Sheriff’s office controls booking records and current jail rosters. The Clerk of Court controls case files — charges, dispositions, and court dates. These are separate offices, and neither automatically feeds the other’s database in real time. A booking may appear on the jail roster before a case number exists in the court system.

At the state level, three institutions matter most. Alacourt is Alabama’s unified court case management portal. It covers circuit and district court cases statewide and is the authoritative source for case status, charges as filed, and dispositions — but it does not show booking records, and it does not include municipal court cases, which remain with individual municipalities. The Alabama Department of Corrections runs the statewide inmate search for people in state prison custody; it does not cover county jails. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency oversees criminal history records at the state level and administers the process for obtaining official background information through proper legal channels.

No single portal combines all three. That gap is exactly why a county-level guide exists.

Before you search

A useful search usually needs at least a full legal name and, ideally, a date of birth. Common names return multiple results, and without a birth date it can be difficult to confirm you are looking at the right person’s record.

A county search covers only that county. If someone was arrested in Tuscaloosa but has a prior case in Etowah, those are two separate searches in two separate systems. There is no shortcut that pulls all Alabama counties at once through a single official portal.

An arrest record is not a conviction. A booking record documents that an arrest occurred — not that the person was found guilty. Charges are sometimes reduced, dismissed, or result in acquittal. Reading a booking record without the corresponding court disposition gives an incomplete picture.

Record systems update on their own schedules. A very recent booking may not appear yet in a searchable database even if it has already occurred. Check back if a record you expect to find is not showing.

Sealing and expungement are real processes under Alabama law. If a record has been expunged, it may no longer appear in public searches. The individual county pages on this site explain what those processes involve.

How we keep this current

Every source linked from this site is an official government source. We cite the institution by name, link to the verified URL, and date each review. Public records systems change — agencies redesign portals, counties switch vendors, and lookup tools move or disappear. Keeping this guide accurate is ongoing work, not a one-time task.

If a link is broken, a county page is out of date, or something here is factually wrong, use the Report an Error link at the top of this page. Confirmed errors are corrected quickly.

This site is an informational guide. It is not legal advice and is not operated by a law firm. It is not a government agency or court and is not affiliated with any. It cannot access private data, and it cannot remove, seal, or alter any official record. For legal questions about a specific record or situation, consult a licensed Alabama attorney.