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 30, 2026.
Columbus, Indiana, in Bartholomew County, has about 52,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Indiana the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Clerk of the Circuit Court; the statewide criminal history kept by the Indiana State Police is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Columbus 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: Columbus public records, Bartholomew County criminal records, Columbus arrest records, Columbus warrants, Columbus inmate search, Columbus court records, Indiana arrest records and Indiana inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Bartholomew Circuit and Superior Courts
In Indiana the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Columbus are heard by the Bartholomew Circuit and Superior Courts, which hear every civil, criminal, family, probate and juvenile case, and the file of each case is kept by the Clerk of the Circuit Court.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at in.gov/courts/local/bartholomew-county (page title: Indiana Judicial Branch: Bartholomew County), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
Statewide, mycase.IN.gov is the Indiana courts' free statewide case search.
The Indiana Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Indiana is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Limited Criminal History search is open to anyone online, through the Indiana State Police. 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.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Columbus
The Bartholomew County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Columbus (filed by the FBI as Columbus Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Columbus: 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 Bartholomew County: Indiana University at Columbus (campus police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Edinburgh Police Department is listed by the FBI across three counties including Bartholomew County, so its arrests are not broken out for Bartholomew County here.
Together, the two agencies in Bartholomew County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,449 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 Columbus arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Columbus in 2025
The agency that reports for Columbus had 46 violent and 643 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 Prosecuting Attorney for Bartholomew County
The Prosecuting Attorney decides which arrests in Bartholomew County become charges and files them in the Bartholomew Circuit and Superior Courts; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at bartholomew.in.gov/prosecutor.html (page title: Prosecutor), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Columbus
Registered sex offenders living in Columbus are listed on the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry, run by the Indiana Department of Correction with the county sheriffs at in.gov. The registry is public and can be searched online; the county sheriff maintains the local entries.
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 Bartholomew 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 Indiana Access to Public Records Act a county office must answer a request within 24 hours for a request made in person and 7 days for one sent by mail or email, and it may charge a copy fee set by the agency, within statutory limits. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at bartholomew.in.gov/how-do-i-search-landing/faq/21-how-do-i-request-... (page title: How do I request public records?).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Columbus?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Indiana State Police: the Limited Criminal History search is open to anyone online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.
Can I search Columbus criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at in.gov/courts/local/bartholomew-county (page title: Indiana Judicial Branch: Bartholomew County). Statewide, mycase.IN.gov is the Indiana courts' free statewide case search.
How do I get my own Indiana criminal history?
Through the same limited criminal history search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Columbus?
The Prosecuting Attorney, which files its cases in the Bartholomew Circuit and Superior Courts.
Is this the official Columbus 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.