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.
Bay County, Michigan, has about 103,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Michigan the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the County Clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the Michigan State Police is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Bay 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: Bay County public records, Bay County arrest records, Bay County warrants, Bay County inmate search, Bay County court records, Michigan arrest records and Michigan inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Bay County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Bay County is filed in the Bay County Circuit Court or the District Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and civil cases up to $25,000, and the court file, kept by the County Clerk, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courtpmt.baycounty.net/c74/c74_cases.php (page title: Bay County Courts, Michigan), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026. That page belongs to a lower court, the District Court, not to the Bay County Circuit Court.
Statewide, MiCOURT Case Search is the Michigan courts' statewide case search; not every court has joined.
The Michigan Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Michigan is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: ICHAT lets anyone search public criminal history by name, for $10 a search, through the Michigan 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. The search is on the Michigan State Police site.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Bay County
The Bay County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Bay City, Essexville and Pinconning keep the arrest records in Bay 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 Bay County: Delta College (campus police); the Bay County State Police (state police); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Midland Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Bay County, so its arrests are not broken out for Bay County here.
Together, the four agencies in Bay County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,767 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 Bay County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Bay County in 2025
The four agencies in Bay County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 258 violent and 979 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,237 crimes in 2025 against 1,370 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 Bay County public records guide.
The Prosecuting Attorney for Bay County
Charges in Bay County are filed by the Prosecuting Attorney, which reviews the arrests of every agency in the county and brings the cases in the Bay County Circuit Court or the District Court.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at baycountymi.gov/courts_law/prosecutor.php (page title: Bay County, MI), phone (989) 895-4185, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Bay County
Registered sex offenders living in Bay County are listed on the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, run by the Michigan State Police at michigan.gov/msp/services/sex-offender-reg. Tier 2 and Tier 3 offenders are listed 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 Bay 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 Michigan Freedom of Information Act a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, with a 10-day extension, and it may charge labor and copying, at rates the law caps. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at baycountymi.gov/departments/corporation_counsel/foia_information/co... (page title: Bay County, MI).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Bay County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Michigan State Police: ICHAT lets anyone search public criminal history by name, for $10. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.
Can I search Bay County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courtpmt.baycounty.net/c74/c74_cases.php (page title: Bay County Courts, Michigan); it belongs to a lower court, not to the Bay County Circuit Court. Statewide, MiCOURT Case Search is the Michigan courts' statewide case search; not every court has joined.
How do I get my own Michigan criminal history?
Through the same ICHAT search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Bay County?
The Prosecuting Attorney, reached at (989) 895-4185, which files its cases in the Bay County Circuit Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Bay 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.