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.
Carter County, Tennessee, has about 57,000 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 Carter 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, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Carter County public records, Carter County arrest records, Carter County warrants, Carter County inmate search, Carter County court records, Tennessee arrest records and Tennessee inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts
A criminal case from Carter County is filed in the Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts or the General Sessions Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases, small claims and preliminary hearings, and the court file, kept by the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk and Master, is the record of it that the public may see.
For Carter County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at cartercountytn.gov/government/elected_officials/circuit_court_clerk... (page title: Carter County Tennessee), phone (423) 542-1835, 900 East Elk Avenue Suite 906 Elizabethton, TN 37643, Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 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 Carter County
The Carter County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Elizabethton keep the arrest records in Carter 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 Johnson City Police Department is listed by the FBI across three counties including Carter County, so its arrests are not broken out for Carter County here.
Together, the two agencies in Carter County with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 1,431 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 Carter County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Carter County in 2025
The two agencies in Carter County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 167 violent and 637 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 804 crimes in 2025 against 802 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 Carter County public records guide.
The District Attorney General for Carter County
The District Attorney General decides which arrests in Carter County become charges and files them in the Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts or the General Sessions Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at tennesseeda.gov/district-1 (page title: 1st Judicial District | Steven R. Finney), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Carter County
Registered sex offenders living in Carter County 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 Carter 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.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Carter County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Carter County and Tennessee. These criminal records pages from its Carter County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- carter, larry wayne (sor.tbi.tn.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Carter County?
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 Carter County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at cartercountytn.gov (page title: Carter County Tennessee).
How do I get my own Tennessee criminal history?
Through the same TORIS search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Carter County?
The District Attorney General, which files its cases in the Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts or the General Sessions Court.
Is this the official Carter 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.