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 30, 2026.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, in Hamilton County, has about 191,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Tennessee the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk and Master; the statewide criminal history kept by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Chattanooga 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: Chattanooga public records, Hamilton County criminal records, Chattanooga arrest records, Chattanooga warrants, Chattanooga inmate search, Chattanooga court records, Tennessee arrest records and Tennessee inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Hamilton County Circuit and Chancery Courts
In Tennessee the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Chattanooga are heard by the Hamilton County Circuit and Chancery Courts, which hear felonies in the Circuit or Criminal Court, civil cases in either court, and divorces in either; the General Sessions Court takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and preliminary hearings, and the file of each case is kept by the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk and Master.
For Hamilton County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at hamiltontn.gov/CircuitCourt_TNCaseFinder.aspx (page title: Circuit Court TN Case Finder, Hamilton County Government), phone 423-209-6700, 500 Courthouse 625 Georgia Avenue Chattanooga, TN 37402, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
Tennessee has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Tennessee Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Tennessee is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: TORIS lets anyone run a name-based criminal history search online, for $29 a search, through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. 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 Tennessee Bureau of Investigation site.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Chattanooga
The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Chattanooga (filed by the FBI as Chattanooga Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Chattanooga: 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 two other agencies and two campus police departments in Hamilton County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the seven agencies in Hamilton County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 10,513 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 Chattanooga arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Chattanooga in 2025
The agency that reports for Chattanooga had 1,318 violent and 6,434 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 Sex Offender Registry for Chattanooga
Registered sex offenders living in Chattanooga are listed on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry, run by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at sor.tbi.tn.gov/home. 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 Hamilton 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 Tennessee Public Records Act a county office must answer a request within 7 business days, and it may charge copying, and labor after the first hour. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at elect.hamiltontn.gov/ORR.aspx (page title: Hamilton TN | Open Records Request Form).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Chattanooga?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation: TORIS lets anyone run a name-based criminal history search online, for $29. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Tennessee Public Records Act.
Can I search Chattanooga criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at hamiltontn.gov/CircuitCourt_TNCaseFinder.aspx (page title: Circuit Court TN Case Finder, Hamilton County Government).
How do I get my own Tennessee criminal history?
Through the same TORIS search, run on yourself.
Is this the official Chattanooga 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.