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 4, 2026.
Franklin County, Pennsylvania, has about 159,000 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 Franklin 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: Franklin County public records, Franklin County arrest records, Franklin County warrants, Franklin County inmate search, Franklin County court records, Pennsylvania arrest records and Pennsylvania inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas
A criminal case from Franklin County is filed in the Franklin 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 franklincountypa.gov/departments/clerk-of-courts (page title: Clerk of Courts -Franklin County), phone 717-261-3805, 14 North Main Street Chambersburg, PA 17201, 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 Franklin County
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Chambersburg, Waynesboro, Greencastle and Mercersburg keep the arrest records in Franklin 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 four state agencies, one campus police department, three other agencies and one state police unit in Franklin County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Shippensburg Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Franklin County, so its arrests are not broken out for Franklin County here.
Together, the six agencies in Franklin County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,244 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 Franklin County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Franklin County in 2025
The six agencies in Franklin County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 112 violent and 643 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 755 crimes in 2025 against 853 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 Franklin County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Franklin County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Franklin County become charges and files them in the Franklin 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 franklincountypa.gov/departments/district-attorney (page title: District Attorney -Franklin County), phone 717-261-3827, 157 Lincoln Way East Chambersburg, PA 17201, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Franklin County
Registered sex offenders living in Franklin 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 Franklin 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 franklincountypa.gov/government/open-records-information (page title: Open Records Information -Franklin County).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Franklin 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 Franklin County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at franklincountypa.gov (page title: Clerk of Courts -Franklin County). 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 Franklin County?
The District Attorney, reached at 717-261-3827, which files its cases in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas or the Magisterial District Courts.
Is this the official Franklin 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.