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 October 9, 2026.
Sarasota County, Florida, has about 477,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Florida the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller; the statewide criminal history kept by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Sarasota 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: Sarasota County public records, Sarasota County arrest records, Sarasota County warrants, Sarasota County inmate search, Sarasota County court records, Florida arrest records and Florida inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Sarasota County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Sarasota County is filed in the Sarasota County Circuit Court or the County Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and civil cases up to $50,000, and the court file, kept by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sarasotaclerk.com/Records/Court-Records (page title: Court Records | Sarasota Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
Florida has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Florida Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Florida is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: anyone can run a name-based criminal history search online for $24, for $24 a search, through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it. The search is on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement site.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Sarasota County
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for North Port, Sarasota, Venice and Longboat Key keep the arrest records in Sarasota 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 state agencies, one state police unit, two other agencies and one campus police department in Sarasota County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the three agencies in Sarasota County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 9,095 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 Sarasota County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Sarasota County in 2024
The three agencies in Sarasota County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 701 violent and 3,979 property crimes to the FBI that year; the two of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 3,380 crimes in 2024 against 3,480 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 Sarasota County public records guide.
The State Attorney for Sarasota County
The State Attorney decides which arrests in Sarasota County become charges and files them in the Sarasota County Circuit Court or the County Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at sao12.org (page title: Office of The State Attorney, Twelfth Judicial Circuit, Florida), phone (941) 861-4400, 2071 Ringling Blvd. Suite 400 Sarasota, FL 34237, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 9, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Sarasota County
Registered sex offenders living in Sarasota County are listed on the Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators Registry, run by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at offender.fdle.state.fl.us. 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 Sarasota 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 Florida Public Records Act (Chapter 119) a county office must answer a request promptly and in good faith; the statute sets no number of days, and it may charge the copy fees set by statute, plus a special service charge for large requests. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sarasotataxcollector.gov/PublicRecordRequest (page title: Public Record Request | Sarasota Tax Collector).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Sarasota County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement: anyone can run a name-based criminal history search online for $24, for $24. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Florida Public Records Act (Chapter 119).
Can I search Sarasota County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sarasotaclerk.com/Records/Court-Records (page title: Court Records | Sarasota Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller).
How do I get my own Florida criminal history?
Through the same search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Sarasota County?
The State Attorney, reached at (941) 861-4400, which files its cases in the Sarasota County Circuit Court or the County Court.
Is this the official Sarasota 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.