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 24, 2026.
Brooke County, West Virginia, has about 21,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In West Virginia the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the West Virginia State Police 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 Brooke 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: Brooke County public records, Brooke County arrest records, Brooke County warrants, Brooke County inmate search, Brooke County court records, West Virginia arrest records and West Virginia inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Brooke County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Brooke County is filed in the Brooke County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases and civil cases up to $10,000, and the court file, kept by the Circuit Clerk, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at brookecountywv.gov/government/county_clerk/document_inquiry_system.php, phone 304-737-3661, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
West Virginia has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The West Virginia Criminal History and Your Own Copy
West Virginia does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the West Virginia State Police goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court file in the Brooke County Circuit Court is the public record.
To see your own record, the route is a fingerprint-based request to the State Police Criminal Identification Bureau.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Brooke County
The Brooke County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Follansbee, Wellsburg, Bethany, Beech Bottom and Windsor Heights keep the arrest records in Brooke 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 these agencies in Brooke County: the State Fire Marshal in Brooke County and the Department of Natural Resources in Brooke County (state agency); the Wellsburg State Police (state police); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Weirton Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Brooke County, so its arrests are not broken out for Brooke County here.
Together, the three agencies in Brooke County with all twelve months of 2023 on file reported 1,351 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 Brooke County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Brooke County in 2023
The two agencies in Brooke County with all twelve months of 2023 on file reported 3 violent and 18 property crimes to the FBI that year; the one of them with both 2023 and 2022 complete reported 17 crimes in 2023 against 15 in 2022. 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 Brooke County public records guide.
The Prosecuting Attorney for Brooke County
The Prosecuting Attorney decides which arrests in Brooke County become charges and files them in the Brooke County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at brookecountywv.gov/government/prosecuting_attorney.php, phone (304) 737-3660, 620 Main Street, Suite 106 Wellsburg, WV 26070, Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Brooke County
Registered sex offenders living in Brooke County are listed on the West Virginia Sex Offender Registry, run by the West Virginia State Police at apps.wv.gov. 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 Brooke 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 West Virginia Freedom of Information Act a county office must answer a request within 5 business days, and it may charge the actual cost of copying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Brooke County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Brooke County Circuit Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the West Virginia State Police is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Can I search Brooke County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at brookecountywv.gov (page title: brookecountywv).
How do I get my own West Virginia criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to the State Police Criminal Identification Bureau.
Who prosecutes crimes in Brooke County?
The Prosecuting Attorney, reached at (304) 737-3660, which files its cases in the Brooke County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court.
Is this the official Brooke 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.