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 2, 2026.
Essex County, New York, has about 37,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In New York the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the County Clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the New York State Office of Court Administration is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Essex 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, sex offender registry, records requests and common questions.
Related guides: Essex County public records, Essex County arrest records, Essex County warrants, Essex County inmate search, Essex County court records, New York arrest records and New York inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Essex County Supreme and County Courts
In New York the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Essex County are heard by the Essex County Supreme and County Courts, which hear divorces and major civil cases in the Supreme Court, felonies in the County Court; the city, town and village courts take misdemeanors, traffic cases and small claims, and the file of each case is kept by the County Clerk.
For Essex County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/CaseSearch (page title: NYSCEF Case Search | NY iApps | Unified Court System), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
Statewide, eCourts is the Unified Court System's free online case search (WebCivil, WebCrims and WebFamily).
The New York Criminal History and Your Own Copy
In New York the public route to a statewide criminal record is the court system's own search: the Office of Court Administration sells a statewide search of criminal court records by name and date of birth, at $95 a search. It covers cases that reached a court, not arrests that never did. The search is on the New York State Office of Court Administration site.
To see your own record, the route is a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at criminaljustice.ny.gov/ojis/recordreview.htm.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Essex County
The Essex County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Lake Placid keep the arrest records in Essex 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 Saranac Lake Village Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Essex County, so its arrests are not broken out for Essex County here.
Together, the three agencies in Essex County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 724 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 Essex County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Essex County in 2025
The four agencies in Essex County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 12 violent and 74 property crimes to the FBI that year; the two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 37 crimes in 2025 against 34 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 Essex County public records guide.
The Sex Offender Registry for Essex County
Registered sex offenders living in Essex County are listed on the New York Sex Offender Registry, run by the Division of Criminal Justice Services at criminaljustice.ny.gov/nsor. Level 2 and Level 3 offenders are listed online; Level 1 offenders are not.
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 Essex 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 Freedom of Information Law a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, at least with an acknowledgment and a date for the full answer, and it may charge copying at 25 cents a page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Essex County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the New York State Office of Court Administration: the Office of Court Administration sells a statewide search of criminal court records by name and date of birth, for $95. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Freedom of Information Law.
Can I search Essex County criminal cases online?
eCourts is the Unified Court System's free online case search (WebCivil, WebCrims and WebFamily).
How do I get my own New York criminal history?
A fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Is this the official Essex 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.