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 on September 23, 2026.
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, has about 293,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Pennsylvania the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Prothonotary for civil cases and divorces and the Clerk of Courts for criminal cases; the statewide criminal history kept by the Pennsylvania State Police is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Dauphin 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: Dauphin County public records, Dauphin County arrest records, Dauphin County warrants, Dauphin County inmate search, Dauphin County court records, Pennsylvania arrest records and Pennsylvania inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas
A criminal case from Dauphin County is filed in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas or the Magisterial District Courts, which take traffic tickets, summary offenses, small claims and preliminary hearings; Philadelphia has the Municipal Court instead, and the court file, kept by the Prothonotary for civil cases and divorces and the Clerk of Courts for criminal cases, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at dauphincounty.gov/government/court-departments/adult-division/acces... (page title: Accessing Public Docket Information), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
Statewide, UJS Web Portal is the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search.
The Pennsylvania Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Pennsylvania is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: PATCH lets anyone request a criminal record check by name online, for $22 a search, through the Pennsylvania State Police. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it. The search is on the Pennsylvania State Police site.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Dauphin County
The agencies that report for Harrisburg, Middletown, Steelton, Hummelstown, Penbrook, Highspire and three more cities keep the arrest records in Dauphin 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 five state agencies, three other agencies, one campus police department and one state police unit in Dauphin County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the 15 agencies in Dauphin County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,965 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 Dauphin County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Dauphin County in 2025
The 15 agencies in Dauphin County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 661 violent and 2,828 property crimes to the FBI that year; the 14 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,855 crimes in 2025 against 3,348 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 Dauphin County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Dauphin County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Dauphin County become charges and files them in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas or the Magisterial District Courts; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at dauphincounty.gov/government/publicly-elected-officials/district-at... (page title: District Attorney), phone (717) 780-6767, 101 Market Street Harrisburg, PA 17101, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Dauphin County
Registered sex offenders living in Dauphin County are listed on the Pennsylvania Megan's Law website, run by the Pennsylvania State Police at meganslaw.psp.pa.gov/Home/TermsAndConditions. 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 Dauphin 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 Right-to-Know Law a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, with a 30-day extension, and it may charge copying at 25 cents a page. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dauphincounty.gov/about-the-county/open-records (page title: Open Records).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Dauphin County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Pennsylvania State Police: PATCH lets anyone request a criminal record check by name online, for $22. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Right-to-Know Law.
Can I search Dauphin County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at dauphincounty.gov (page title: Accessing Public Docket Information). Statewide, UJS Web Portal is the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search.
How do I get my own Pennsylvania criminal history?
Through the same PATCH request, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Dauphin County?
The District Attorney, reached at (717) 780-6767, which files its cases in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas or the Magisterial District Courts.
Is this the official Dauphin 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.