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.
Highland County, Ohio, has about 44,000 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 Highland 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: Highland County public records, Highland County arrest records, Highland County warrants, Highland County inmate search, Highland County court records, Ohio arrest records and Ohio inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Highland County Court of Common Pleas
In Ohio the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Highland County are heard by the Highland 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.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at highlandclerkofcourts.org, phone 937-393-9957, 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 Highland 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 Highland County
The Highland County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Hillsboro, Greenfield, Lynchburg, Leesburg, Mowrystown and Highland keep the arrest records in Highland 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.
Together, the six agencies in Highland County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 2,700 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 Highland County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Highland County in 2024
The four agencies in Highland County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 39 violent and 281 property crimes to the FBI that year; the three of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 301 crimes in 2024 against 371 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 Highland County public records guide.
The Prosecuting Attorney for Highland County
The Prosecuting Attorney decides which arrests in Highland County become charges and files them in the Highland 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 ohioattorneygeneral.gov/getattachment/475d523e-7262-47d0-9706-5a525... (page title: March 28, 2025 The Honorable Anneka P. Collins), phone (614) 752-6417, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Highland County
Registered sex offenders living in Highland County 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 Highland 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Highland County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Highland 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 Highland County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at highlandclerkofcourts.org (page title: ).
How do I get my own Ohio criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based WebCheck at any WebCheck location.
Who prosecutes crimes in Highland County?
The Prosecuting Attorney, reached at (614) 752-6417, which files its cases in the Highland County Court of Common Pleas or the Municipal and County Courts.
Is this the official Highland 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.