Reviewed and updated October 11, 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 11, 2026.
Lafayette County, Mississippi, has about 60,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Mississippi the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk for criminal and civil cases and the Chancery Clerk for divorces, estates and land records; the statewide criminal history kept by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Criminal Information Center is released only to its subject and to the employers and agencies the law allows. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Lafayette 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: Lafayette County public records, Lafayette County arrest records, Lafayette County warrants, Lafayette County inmate search, Lafayette County court records, Mississippi arrest records and Mississippi inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Lafayette County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Lafayette County is filed in the Lafayette County Circuit Court or the Justice Court and County Court, which take misdemeanors, traffic cases and small claims in the Justice Court; the County Court, where the county has one, takes eminent domain, juvenile and mid-sized civil cases, and the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk for criminal and civil cases and the Chancery Clerk for divorces, estates and land records, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at lafayettems.com/chancery-court (page title: Chancery Court | Lafayette County), phone (662) 236-0232, 300 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite 208, Oxford, MS 38655, Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 11, 2026.
Mississippi has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Mississippi Criminal History and Your Own Copy
The statewide criminal history kept by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Criminal Information Center is closed to the public in Mississippi: it is released to its subject and to authorized employers and licensing agencies, and a member of the public uses the court's own case index instead.
To see your own record, the route is a fingerprint-based request to the Criminal Information Center. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at dps.ms.gov/investigation/criminal-information-center/Release-Backgr....
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Lafayette County
The Lafayette County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Oxford keep the arrest records in Lafayette 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 Lafayette County: the University of Mississippi at Oxford (campus police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the two agencies in Lafayette County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 1,609 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 Lafayette County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Lafayette County in 2024
The two agencies in Lafayette County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 61 violent and 608 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 669 crimes in 2024 against 671 in 2023. 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 Lafayette County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Lafayette County
Charges in Lafayette County are filed by the District Attorney, which reviews the arrests of every agency in the county and brings the cases in the Lafayette County Circuit Court or the Justice Court and County Court.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at lafayettems.com/places/mississippi-office-of-the-district-attorney (page title: District Attorney's Office | Lafayette County), phone (662) 234-3304, 300 N. Lamar Blvd., Oxford, MS 38655, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Lafayette County
Registered sex offenders living in Lafayette County are listed on the Mississippi Sex Offender Registry, run by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety at offenderwatch.com/network/mississippi. 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 Lafayette 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 Mississippi Public Records Act a county office must answer a request within 7 working days, or up to 14 where local rules allow, and it may charge the actual cost of search, review and copying. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lafayettems.com/how-do-i/request-public-records (page title: Request Public Records | Lafayette County).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Lafayette County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Lafayette County Circuit Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Criminal Information Center is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Mississippi Public Records Act.
Can I search Lafayette County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at lafayettems.com/chancery-court (page title: Chancery Court | Lafayette County).
How do I get my own Mississippi criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to the Criminal Information Center.
Who prosecutes crimes in Lafayette County?
The District Attorney, reached at (662) 234-3304, which files its cases in the Lafayette County Circuit Court or the Justice Court and County Court.
Is this the official Lafayette 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.