Reviewed and updated October 7, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest and crime counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Chicago, Illinois, in Cook County, has about 2.7 million residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Illinois the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the Illinois State Police is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Chicago is kept and how it is seen.
This guide covers the court file, the statewide record, local arrest records, the crimes behind the records, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Chicago public records, Cook County public records, Chicago warrants, Chicago inmate search, Chicago court records, Chicago police reports, Illinois arrest records and Illinois inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Circuit Court of Cook County
In Illinois the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Chicago are heard by the Circuit Court of Cook County, which hears every civil, criminal, family, probate, traffic and juvenile case, and the file of each case is kept by the Circuit Clerk.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at cookcountyil.gov/service/court-records-and-archives (page title: Court Records and Archives), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
Illinois has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Illinois Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Illinois is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: conviction information is public under the Uniform Conviction Information Act, through the Illinois State Police. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
To see your own record, the route is a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at isp.illinois.gov/BureauOfIdentification/MyRecord.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Chicago
The Cook County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Chicago (filed by the FBI as Chicago Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Chicago: the report and the booking record of each arrest stay with the agency that made it, separate from the court file and from the state repository.
The FBI's agency list also places 14 campus police departments and 15 other agencies in Cook County; each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Elgin Police Department, the Buffalo Grove Police Department, the Deerfield Police Department and eight more are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Cook County, so their arrests are not broken out for Cook County here.
Together, the 100 agencies in Cook County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 71,187 arrests to the FBI that year; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Chicago in 2025
The agency that reports for Chicago had 11,417 violent and 80,265 property crimes reported for 2025; each one is a report on file with it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The State's Attorney for Cook County
The State's Attorney decides which arrests in Cook County become charges and files them in the Circuit Court of Cook County; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at cookcountyil.gov/agency/states-attorney (page title: States Attorney), phone (312) 603-1880, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Chicago
Registered sex offenders living in Chicago are listed on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, run by the Illinois State Police at illinois.gov. The registry is public and can be searched online.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the sheriff's office, or the city police in a city with its own department.
Asking an Agency in Cook County for a Record
An arrest report, a booking record or a local criminal history letter comes from the agency that holds it, not from the court.
Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, with one 5-day extension, and it may charge copying only after the first 50 pages.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Cook County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Cook County and Illinois. These criminal records pages from its Cook County listing were opened again on October 1, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Detainee Discharge Tracker (iic.ccsheriff.org)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Chicago?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Illinois State Police: conviction information is public under the Uniform Conviction Information Act. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
Can I search Chicago criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at cookcountyil.gov (page title: Court Records and Archives).
How do I get my own Illinois criminal history?
Through a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.
Who prosecutes crimes in Chicago?
The State's Attorney, reached at (312) 603-1880, which files its cases in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
Is this the official Chicago website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.