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.
Sumter County, Alabama, has about 12,000 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 Sumter 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, sex offender registry, records requests, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Sumter County public records, Sumter County arrest records, Sumter County warrants, Sumter County court records, Sumter County police reports, Alabama arrest records and Alabama inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Sumter County Circuit Court
In Alabama the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Sumter County are heard by the Sumter 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.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sumter.alacourt.gov (page title: Sumter County | Seventeenth Circuit Court of Alabama), phone (205) 652-2291, 115 Franklin St., Livingston, AL 35470, 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
Alabama does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court file in the Sumter County Circuit Court is the public record.
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 Sumter County
The Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Livingston, York and Cuba keep the arrest records in Sumter 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 Sumter County: the University of West Alabama (campus police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the three agencies in Sumter County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 65 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 Sumter County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Sumter County in 2024
The three agencies in Sumter County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 22 violent and 53 property crimes to the FBI that year; the one of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 63 crimes in 2024 against 75 in 2023. 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 Sumter County public records guide.
The Sex Offender Registry for Sumter County
Registered sex offenders living in Sumter 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 Sumter 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.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Sumter County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Sumter County and Alabama. These criminal records pages from its Sumter County listing were opened again on October 1, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Sex Offender Registry (alea.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Sumter County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Sumter 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 Sumter County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sumter.alacourt.gov (page title: Sumter County | Seventeenth 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.
Is this the official Sumter 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.