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 October 2, 2026.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in Rockingham County, has about 23,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In New Hampshire the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the clerk of each court; the statewide criminal history kept by the New Hampshire State Police Criminal Records Unit 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 Portsmouth 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, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Portsmouth public records, Rockingham County criminal records, Portsmouth arrest records, Portsmouth warrants, Portsmouth inmate search, Portsmouth court records, New Hampshire arrest records and New Hampshire inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Rockingham County Superior Court
A criminal case from Portsmouth is filed in the Rockingham County Superior Court or the Circuit Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases and small claims in the District Division; divorces and family matters in the Family Division; estates in the Probate Division, and the court file, kept by the clerk of each court, is the record of it that the public may see.
For Rockingham County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at courts.nh.gov/news-and-media/case-access-portal-here (page title: Case Access Portal is Here! | New Hampshire Judicial Branch), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
New Hampshire has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The New Hampshire Criminal History and Your Own Copy
New Hampshire does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the New Hampshire State Police Criminal Records Unit goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court file in the Rockingham County Superior Court is the public record.
To see your own record, the route is a notarized request to the Criminal Records Unit. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at nhsp.dos.nh.gov/our-services/criminal-records/criminal-history-reco....
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Portsmouth
The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Portsmouth (filed by the FBI as Portsmouth Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Portsmouth: 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 Rockingham County: the Rockingham County State Police (state police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the 35 agencies in Rockingham County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,812 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 Portsmouth arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Portsmouth in 2025
The agency that reports for Portsmouth had 47 violent and 264 property crimes reported for 2025; each one is a report on file with it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The County Attorney for Rockingham County
The County Attorney decides which arrests in Rockingham County become charges and files them in the Rockingham County Superior Court or the Circuit Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at rockinghamcountyattorney.org (page title: Rockingham County Attorney's Office), phone 603-642-4249, 100 North Road - Second Floor, Brentwood NH 03833, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Portsmouth
Registered sex offenders living in Portsmouth are listed on the New Hampshire Sex Offender Registry, run by the New Hampshire Department of Safety at business.nh.gov/nsor. 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 Rockingham 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 New Hampshire Right-to-Know Law a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, and it may charge the actual cost of copying.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Rockingham County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Rockingham County and New Hampshire. These criminal records pages from its Rockingham County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Criminal Records (nhsp.dos.nh.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Portsmouth?
The court files of criminal cases in the Rockingham County Superior Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the New Hampshire State Police Criminal Records Unit is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the New Hampshire Right-to-Know Law.
How do I get my own New Hampshire criminal history?
Through a notarized request to the Criminal Records Unit.
Who prosecutes crimes in Portsmouth?
The County Attorney, reached at 603-642-4249, which files its cases in the Rockingham County Superior Court or the Circuit Court.
Is this the official Portsmouth website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.