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.
Hillsdale County, Michigan, has about 46,000 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 Hillsdale 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: Hillsdale County public records, Hillsdale County arrest records, Hillsdale County warrants, Hillsdale County inmate search, Hillsdale County court records, Michigan arrest records and Michigan inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Hillsdale County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Hillsdale County is filed in the Hillsdale 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 courts.michigan.gov/case-search/?resultType=cases&aBarNumber=1130 (page title: Hillsdale County Court Records | Michigan Courts), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026. That page belongs to a lower court, the District Court, not to the Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County
The Hillsdale County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Hillsdale, Jonesville, Litchfield and Reading keep the arrest records in Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County: the Hillsdale County State Police (state police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the six agencies in Hillsdale County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 562 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 Hillsdale County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Hillsdale County in 2025
The six agencies in Hillsdale County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 60 violent and 203 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 263 crimes in 2025 against 355 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 Hillsdale County public records guide.
The Prosecuting Attorney for Hillsdale County
The Prosecuting Attorney decides which arrests in Hillsdale County become charges and files them in the Hillsdale County 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 hillsdalecounty.gov/index.php/tm-courts/m-prosecutor/a-pa-victim-se... (page title: Crime Victim Services), phone 517-437-7758, 29 N. Howell St. Room 13 Hillsdale, MI 49242, Monday-Wednesday and Friday. 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Hillsdale County
Registered sex offenders living in Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.michigan.gov (page title: Hillsdale County Court Records | Michigan Courts); it belongs to a lower court, not to the Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County?
The Prosecuting Attorney, reached at 517-437-7758, which files its cases in the Hillsdale County Circuit Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Hillsdale 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.