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 October 9, 2026.
Jefferson County, Alabama, has about 665,000 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 Jefferson 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 and common questions.
Related guides: Jefferson County public records, Jefferson County arrest records, Jefferson County warrants, Jefferson County inmate search, Jefferson County court records, Alabama arrest records and Alabama inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Jefferson County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Jefferson County is filed in the Jefferson County Circuit Court or the District Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and preliminary hearings in felony cases, and the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk, is the record of it that the public may see.
For Jefferson County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at jefferson.alacourt.gov (page title: Jefferson County, Birmingham Division | 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama), phone (205) 325-5355, 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 Jefferson County
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, Trussville, Bessemer and 19 more cities keep the arrest records in Jefferson 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 five campus police departments, one state agency and two other agencies in Jefferson County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Helena Police Department, the Sumiton Police Department, the Argo Police Department and one more are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Jefferson County, so their arrests are not broken out for Jefferson County here.
Together, the 21 agencies in Jefferson County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 17,082 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 Jefferson County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Jefferson County in 2025
The 22 agencies in Jefferson County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,865 violent and 16,727 property crimes to the FBI that year; the 20 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 20,202 crimes in 2025 against 21,208 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 Jefferson County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Jefferson County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Jefferson County become charges and files them in the Jefferson 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 jccal.org/370/District-Attorneys-Office---Birmingham (page title: District Attorney's Office | Birmingham | Jefferson County, AL), phone 205-325-5252, 801 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N Suite 105 Birmingham, AL 35203, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Jefferson County
Registered sex offenders living in Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 jeffersoncounty.nextrequest.com (page title: Public Record RequestsNextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Jefferson County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Jefferson 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 Jefferson County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at jefferson.alacourt.gov (page title: Jefferson County, Birmingham Division | 10th Judicial Circuit 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 Jefferson County?
The District Attorney, reached at 205-325-5252, which files its cases in the Jefferson County Circuit Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Jefferson 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.