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 on September 24, 2026.
Kent County, Delaware, has about 193,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Delaware the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Prothonotary; the statewide criminal history kept by the Delaware State Bureau of Identification 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 Kent 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 and common questions.
Related guides: Kent County public records, Kent County arrest records, Kent County warrants, Kent County inmate search, Kent County court records, Delaware arrest records and Delaware inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Delaware Superior Court, Kent County
A criminal case from Kent County is filed in the Delaware Superior Court, Kent County or the Court of Common Pleas and the Justice of the Peace Courts, which take misdemeanors in the Court of Common Pleas, traffic cases and small civil claims in the Justice of the Peace Courts, and the court file, kept by the Prothonotary, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.delaware.gov/aoc/kccourthouse (page title: Kent County Courthouse | Administrative Office of the Courts | Delaware Courts | State of Delaware), phone 302.735.1900, 414 Federal Street Dover, DE 19901, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026. That page belongs to a lower court, the Court of Common Pleas and the Justice of the Peace Courts, not to the Delaware Superior Court, Kent County.
Statewide, CourtConnect is the Delaware courts' free online case search for civil cases and judgments.
The Delaware Criminal History and Your Own Copy
The statewide criminal history kept by the Delaware State Bureau of Identification is closed to the public in Delaware: 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 the State Bureau of Identification. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at dsp.delaware.gov/obtaining-a-certified-criminal-history.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Kent County
The state police or the town police and the agencies that report for Dover, Smyrna, Clayton, Camden, Harrington, Cheswold and five more cities keep the arrest records in Kent 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 seven state agencies, one other agency, one state police unit and one campus police department in Kent County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Milford Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Kent County, so its arrests are not broken out for Kent County here.
Together, the 11 agencies in Kent County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,681 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 Kent County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Kent County in 2025
The 11 agencies in Kent County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 466 violent and 2,921 property crimes to the FBI that year; the nine of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3,383 crimes in 2025 against 3,625 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 Kent County public records guide.
The Sex Offender Registry for Kent County
Registered sex offenders living in Kent County are listed on the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry, run by the Delaware State Police at sexoffender.dsp.delaware.gov. Tier 2 and Tier 3 offenders are listed online.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the town police in a town with its own department and the Delaware State Police elsewhere.
Asking an Agency in Kent 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 Delaware Freedom of Information Act a county office must answer a request within 15 business days, and it may charge the copy fees set by statute, plus staff time after the first hour. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at kentcountyde.gov/Contact-Us/FOIA (page title: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Kent County Levy Court).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Kent County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Delaware Superior Court, Kent County are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Delaware State Bureau of Identification is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Delaware Freedom of Information Act.
Can I search Kent County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.delaware.gov/aoc/kccourthouse (page title: Kent County Courthouse | Administrative Office of the Courts | Delaware Courts | State of Delaware); it belongs to a lower court, not to the Delaware Superior Court, Kent County. Statewide, CourtConnect is the Delaware courts' free online case search for civil cases and judgments.
How do I get my own Delaware criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to the State Bureau of Identification.
Is this the official Kent 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.