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 2, 2026.
Bell County, Kentucky, has about 23,000 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 Bell 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: Bell County public records, Bell County arrest records, Bell County warrants, Bell County court records, Bell County police reports, Kentucky arrest records and Kentucky inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Bell Circuit Court
In Kentucky the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Bell County are heard by the Bell Circuit Court, which hears felonies, civil cases over $5,000, divorces and appeals from the district court; the District Court takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims, probate and juvenile matters, and the file of each case is kept by the Circuit Court Clerk.
For Bell County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at kycourts.gov/Courts/County-Information/Pages/Bell.aspx (page title: Bell | Kentucky Court of Justice), phone 606-337-9900, 101 W. Park Ave. Pineville, KY 40977, Monday 8 a.m.-4 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 Bell County
The Bell County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Middlesborough and Pineville keep the arrest records in Bell 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 these agencies in Bell County: Pineville Independent Schools, the Bell County School District and Middlesboro Independent Schools (other agency); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the three agencies in Bell County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,410 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 Bell County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Bell County in 2025
The three agencies in Bell County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 29 violent and 330 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 359 crimes in 2025 against 320 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 Bell County public records guide.
The Sex Offender Registry for Bell County
Registered sex offenders living in Bell County 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 Bell 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 Bell County?
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 Bell County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at kycourts.gov (page title: Bell | Kentucky Court of Justice).
How do I get my own Kentucky criminal history?
Through the same court record report, run on yourself.
Is this the official Bell 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.