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 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Payson, Arizona, in Gila County, has about 17,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Arizona the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Clerk of the Superior Court; the statewide criminal history kept by the Arizona Department of Public Safety 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 Payson 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: Payson public records, Gila County criminal records, Payson arrest records, Payson warrants, Payson inmate search, Payson court records, Arizona arrest records and Arizona inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Gila County Superior Court
A criminal case from Payson is filed in the Gila County Superior Court or the Justice Courts, which take misdemeanors, traffic cases, civil cases up to $10,000 and evictions, and the court file, kept by the Clerk of the Superior Court, is the record of it that the public may see.
For Gila County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at gilacountyaz.gov/government/courts/index.php (page title: Welcome to the Gila County Courts), phone 844-310-0743, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026. That page belongs to a lower court, the Justice Courts, not to the Gila County Superior Court.
Statewide, Public Access to Court Information is the Arizona Judicial Branch's free statewide case search; the Maricopa and Pima county courts run their own.
The Arizona Criminal History and Your Own Copy
The statewide criminal history kept by the Arizona Department of Public Safety is closed to the public in Arizona: 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 Record Review Packet, fingerprint-based, from the Department of Public Safety. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at azdps.gov/services/public-services-portal/records-request.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Payson
The Gila County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Payson (filed by the FBI as Payson Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Payson: 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.
Together, the three agencies in Gila County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,980 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 Payson arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Payson in 2025
The agency that reports for Payson had 48 violent and 244 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 County Attorney for Gila County
The County Attorney decides which arrests in Gila County become charges and files them in the Gila County Superior Court or the Justice Courts; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at gilacountyaz.gov/government/county_attorney/index.php (page title: Gila County Attorney), phone (928) 402-8630, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Payson
Registered sex offenders living in Payson are listed on the Arizona Sex Offender Information Center, run by the Arizona Department of Public Safety at azdps.gov/content/basic-page/106. Level 2 and Level 3 offenders are listed; Level 1 offenders are not shown 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 Gila 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 Arizona Public Records Law a county office must answer a request promptly, with no fixed number of days in the statute, and it may charge the cost of copies, and more for commercial requests. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at gilacountyaz.gov/documents/public_records_request_forms.php (page title: Gila County Clerk of the Board | Public Records Request).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Payson?
The court files of criminal cases in the Gila County Superior Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Arizona Department of Public Safety is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Arizona Public Records Law.
Can I search Payson criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at gilacountyaz.gov/government/courts/index.php (page title: Welcome to the Gila County Courts); it belongs to a lower court, not to the Gila County Superior Court. Statewide, Public Access to Court Information is the Arizona Judicial Branch's free statewide case search; the Maricopa and Pima county courts run their own.
How do I get my own Arizona criminal history?
Through a Record Review Packet, fingerprint-based, from the Department of Public Safety.
Who prosecutes crimes in Payson?
The County Attorney, reached at (928) 402-8630, which files its cases in the Gila County Superior Court or the Justice Courts.
Is this the official Payson 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.