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 28, 2026.
Dayton, Ohio, in Montgomery County, has about 136,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Ohio the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Clerk of Courts; the statewide criminal history kept by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation 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 Dayton 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: Dayton public records, Montgomery County criminal records, Dayton arrest records, Dayton warrants, Dayton inmate search, Dayton court records, Ohio arrest records and Ohio inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas
In Ohio the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Dayton are heard by the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, which hears felonies, civil cases over $15,000, divorces, probate and juvenile matters, each in its own division; the Municipal and County Courts take misdemeanors, traffic cases, evictions and civil cases up to $15,000; mayor's courts handle some village tickets, and the file of each case is kept by the Clerk of Courts.
For Montgomery County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at montgomerycountyauditors.org/clerk-of-courts-search-montgomery-ohio (page title: Clerk of Courts Search (Montgomery County Ohio)), phone (937) 225-4326, 451 W Third Street, Dayton, OH 45422, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
Ohio has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Ohio Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Ohio does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court file in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas is the public record.
To see your own record, the route is a fingerprint-based WebCheck at any WebCheck location. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Individuals-and-Families/Consumers/Requesti....
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Dayton
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Dayton (filed by the FBI as Dayton Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Dayton: 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 Montgomery County: Sinclair Community College (campus police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Carlisle Police Department and the Springboro Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Montgomery County, so their arrests are not broken out for Montgomery County here.
Together, the 17 agencies in Montgomery County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 14,182 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 Dayton arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Dayton in 2025
The agency that reports for Dayton had 1,673 violent and 5,478 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 Prosecuting Attorney for Montgomery County
The Prosecuting Attorney decides which arrests in Montgomery County become charges and files them in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas or the Municipal and County Courts; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at mcohio.org/740/Prosecutor (page title: Prosecutor | Montgomery County, OH), phone 937-225-5623, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Dayton
Registered sex offenders living in Dayton are listed on eSORN, run by the Ohio Attorney General at icrimewatch.net/index.php?AgencyID=55149. The registry is public and can be searched online; the county sheriff registers them.
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 Montgomery 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 Ohio Public Records Act a county office must answer a request promptly, within a reasonable period of time, and it may charge the actual cost of copying. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at mcohiosheriff.org/support_services/public_records.php (page title: Records Requests).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Dayton?
The court files of criminal cases in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Ohio Public Records Act.
Can I search Dayton criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at montgomerycountyauditors.org (page title: Clerk of Courts Search (Montgomery County Ohio)).
How do I get my own Ohio criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based WebCheck at any WebCheck location.
Who prosecutes crimes in Dayton?
The Prosecuting Attorney, reached at 937-225-5623, which files its cases in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas or the Municipal and County Courts.
Is this the official Dayton 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.