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 October 4, 2026.
Ottawa County, Michigan, has about 306,000 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 Ottawa 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: Ottawa County public records, Ottawa County arrest records, Ottawa County warrants, Ottawa County inmate search, Ottawa County court records, Michigan arrest records and Michigan inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Ottawa County Circuit Court
In Michigan the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Ottawa County are heard by the Ottawa County Circuit Court, which hears felonies, civil cases over $25,000, divorces and family matters; the District Court takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and civil cases up to $25,000, and the file of each case is kept by the County Clerk.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.michigan.gov/search/?searchQuery=ottawa+county, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Ottawa County
The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Holland, Grand Haven and Zeeland keep the arrest records in Ottawa 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 Ottawa County: Grand Valley State University (campus police); the Ottawa County State Police (state police); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the three agencies in Ottawa County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,935 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 Ottawa County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Ottawa County in 2025
The three agencies in Ottawa County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 714 violent and 1,817 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,531 crimes in 2025 against 2,443 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 Ottawa County public records guide.
The Prosecuting Attorney for Ottawa County
The Prosecuting Attorney decides which arrests in Ottawa County become charges and files them in the Ottawa 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 miottawa.org/department/prosecuting-attorney (page title: Prosecuting Attorney | Ottawa County, MI), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Ottawa County
Registered sex offenders living in Ottawa 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 Ottawa 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 miottawa.org/clerk/circuit-court-records/search-request-records (page title: Search & Request Records | Ottawa County, MI).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Ottawa 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 Ottawa County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.michigan.gov (page title: Michigan). 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 Ottawa County?
The Prosecuting Attorney, which files its cases in the Ottawa County Circuit Court or the District Court.
Is this the official Ottawa 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.