Reviewed and updated October 9, 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 24, 2026 and September 30, 2026.
Etowah County, Alabama, has about 103,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Alabama the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is released only to its subject and to the employers and agencies the law allows. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Etowah County 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: Etowah County public records, Etowah County arrest records, Etowah County warrants, Etowah County court records, Etowah County police reports, Alabama arrest records and Alabama inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Etowah County Circuit Court
In Alabama the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Etowah County are heard by the Etowah County Circuit Court, which hears felonies, civil cases over $20,000, divorces and appeals from the district court; the District Court takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and preliminary hearings in felony cases, and the file of each case is kept by the Circuit Clerk.
For Etowah County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at etowah.alacourt.gov (page title: Etowah County | Sixteenth Circuit Court of Alabama), phone 256-549-5372, 801 Forrest Ave., Gadsden, AL 35901, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
Statewide, Alacourt is the statewide online index of Alabama trial court cases, sold by subscription.
The Alabama Criminal History and Your Own Copy
The statewide criminal history kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is closed to the public in Alabama: it is released to its subject and to authorized employers and licensing agencies, and a member of the public uses the court's own case index instead.
To see your own record, the route is a fingerprint-based request to ALEA. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at alea.gov/sbi/criminal-justice-services/criminal-records.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Etowah County
The Etowah County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Gadsden, Rainbow City, Southside, Attalla, Glencoe, Hokes Bluff and three more cities keep the arrest records in Etowah County: 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 one more agency in Etowah County: Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit (other agency); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Boaz Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Etowah County, so its arrests are not broken out for Etowah County here.
Together, the nine agencies in Etowah County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,429 arrests to the FBI that year; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The agencies and their counts, year by year, are in Etowah County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Etowah County in 2025
The nine agencies in Etowah County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 207 violent and 1,240 property crimes to the FBI that year; the eight of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,439 crimes in 2025 against 1,611 in 2024. Each reported crime is a report on file with the agency that took it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The full crime section, agency by agency, is on the Etowah County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Etowah County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Etowah County become charges and files them in the Etowah County Circuit Court or the District Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at etowahda.com (page title: Etowah County District Attorney's Office | Etowah County District Attorney's Office), 801 Forrest Avenue, Gadsden, AL 35901, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Etowah County
Registered sex offenders living in Etowah County are listed on the Alabama Sex Offender Registry, run by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency at alea.gov/node/43. 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 Etowah 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 Alabama Public Records Law a county office must answer a request within a reasonable time; the statute sets no fixed deadline, and it may charge a reasonable fee for copies. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at etowah.alacourt.gov/record-request-and-copies (page title: Etowah County | Sixteenth Circuit Court of Alabama).
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Etowah County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Etowah County and Alabama. These criminal records pages from its Etowah County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Sex Offender Registry (alea.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Etowah County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Etowah County Circuit Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Alabama Public Records Law.
Can I search Etowah County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at etowah.alacourt.gov (page title: Etowah County | Sixteenth Circuit Court of Alabama). Statewide, Alacourt is the statewide online index of Alabama trial court cases, sold by subscription.
How do I get my own Alabama criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to ALEA.
Who prosecutes crimes in Etowah County?
The District Attorney, which files its cases in the Etowah County Circuit Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Etowah County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.