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 October 9, 2026.
Paducah, Kentucky, in McCracken County, has about 27,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Kentucky the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Circuit Court Clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Paducah 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: Paducah public records, McCracken County criminal records, Paducah arrest records, Paducah warrants, Paducah inmate search, Paducah court records, Kentucky arrest records and Kentucky inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the McCracken Circuit Court
A criminal case from Paducah is filed in the McCracken Circuit Court or the District Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims, probate and juvenile matters, and the court file, kept by the Circuit Court Clerk, is the record of it that the public may see.
For McCracken County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at kycourts.gov/Courts/County-Information/Pages/McCracken.aspx (page title: McCracken | Kentucky Court of Justice), phone 270-575-7280, 300 Clarence Gaines St. Paducah, KY 42003, Monday 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
Kentucky has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Kentucky Criminal History and Your Own Copy
In Kentucky the public route to a statewide criminal record is the court system's own search: the Administrative Office of the Courts, not the state police, sells name-based criminal record reports to the public, at $25 a search. It covers cases that reached a court, not arrests that never did. The search is on the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts site.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Paducah
The McCracken County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Paducah (filed by the FBI as Paducah Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Paducah: 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 these agencies in McCracken County: McCracken County Public Schools and Paducah Independent Schools (other agency); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the two agencies in McCracken County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,385 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 Paducah arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Paducah in 2025
The agency that reports for Paducah had 73 violent and 635 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 Commonwealth's Attorney for McCracken County
The Commonwealth's Attorney decides which arrests in McCracken County become charges and files them in the McCracken Circuit Court or the District Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at commonwealthattorney-mccrackencounty.ky.gov/Pages/index.aspx (page title: Welcome! | Commonwealth's Attorney), phone (270) 575-7402, 301 South 6th Street Paducah, KY 42003, monwealth as a whole. Our office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 9, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Paducah
Registered sex offenders living in Paducah are listed on the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry, run by the Kentucky State Police at kspsor.state.ky.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 McCracken 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 Kentucky Open Records Act a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, and it may charge the actual cost of copying, 10 cents a page for standard copies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Paducah?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts: the Administrative Office of the Courts, not the state police, sells name-based criminal record reports to the public, for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Kentucky Open Records Act.
Can I search Paducah criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at kycourts.gov (page title: McCracken | Kentucky Court of Justice).
How do I get my own Kentucky criminal history?
Through the same court record report, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Paducah?
The Commonwealth's Attorney, reached at (270) 575-7402, which files its cases in the McCracken Circuit Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Paducah 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.