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 September 30, 2026.
Penobscot County, Maine, has about 157,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Maine the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the clerk of each court; the statewide criminal history kept by the Maine State Police State Bureau of Identification is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Penobscot 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: Penobscot County public records, Penobscot County arrest records, Penobscot County warrants, Penobscot County inmate search, Penobscot County court records, Maine arrest records and Maine inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Penobscot County Superior Court
In Maine the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Penobscot County are heard by the Penobscot County Superior Court, which hears felonies with jury trials and civil cases; the District Court takes misdemeanors, traffic violations, small claims, divorces and family matters, and the file of each case is kept by the clerk of each court.
For Penobscot County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at courts.maine.gov/courts/superior/penobscot-sc.html (page title: Penobscot County Superior Court: State of Maine Judicial Branch), phone (207) 561-2300, 78 Exchange Street, Bangor, ME 04401, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
Maine has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Maine Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Maine is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: conviction records are public and can be requested on anyone by name, through the Maine State Police State Bureau of Identification. 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 Penobscot County
The Penobscot County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Bangor, Brewer and Old Town keep the arrest records in Penobscot 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 one more agency in Penobscot County: the University of Maine at Orono (campus police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the 12 agencies in Penobscot County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,398 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 Penobscot County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Penobscot County in 2025
The 11 agencies in Penobscot County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 115 violent and 1,719 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,834 crimes in 2025 against 2,115 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 Penobscot County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Penobscot County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Penobscot County become charges and files them in the Penobscot County Superior 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 penobscot-county.net/government/elected_officials/district_attorney... (page title: Penobscot County ME), phone (207) 942-8535, 97 Hammond St. Bangor, ME 04401, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Penobscot County
Registered sex offenders living in Penobscot County are listed on the Maine Sex Offender Registry, run by the Maine State Police at apps.web.maine.gov/cgi-bin/sor/index.pl. Registrants under the 1999 and 2013 laws are listed.
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 Penobscot 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 Maine Freedom of Access Act a county office must answer a request within a reasonable time, after acknowledging the request within 5 working days, and it may charge staff time after the first two hours, plus copying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Penobscot County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Maine State Police State Bureau of Identification: conviction records are public and can be requested on anyone by name. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Maine Freedom of Access Act.
Can I search Penobscot County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.maine.gov (page title: Penobscot County Superior Court: State of Maine Judicial Branch).
How do I get my own Maine criminal history?
Through the same record request, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Penobscot County?
The District Attorney, reached at (207) 942-8535, which files its cases in the Penobscot County Superior Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Penobscot 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.