Arrest Records for Grand Traverse County, Michigan

When you need to look up an arrest record in Grand Traverse County, the records live in two separate systems: court filings held by the Grand Traverse County Clerk’s Office at 400 Boardman Avenue, Traverse City, and booking records held by the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office at 851 Woodmere Avenue. The Clerk’s Office maintains the county’s Criminal Records Database for circuit-court felony cases and the 86th District Court case search for misdemeanor matters. Clerk staff are available Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed holidays. The county’s Circuit Court Records portal lists filing fees and copy costs; confirm the current per-page fee before submitting a written request.

If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Grand Traverse County inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.

If you need records outside Grand Traverse County

A nationwide criminal records search may help fill gaps that local portals often leave — records from neighboring counties that don’t publish online, cases filed in other states where someone has lived, or federal charges that never appear in a county court system. The preliminary scan is free; a full report requires creating an account. This tool is designed to search across multiple jurisdictions, so it can surface records that a single county portal cannot reach.

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This tool is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and may not be used to screen anyone for employment, housing, credit, or any other purpose covered by that law.

How to look up arrest records in Grand Traverse County

Does the record you need come from a court filing or a booking at the jail? The answer determines where you look — and what you’ll find when you get there.

MiCOURT Case Search — 86th District Court. Every adult criminal case in Grand Traverse County begins at the 86th District Court. Misdemeanor arraignments, preliminary examinations, and traffic matters all run through this court. The 86th District Court case search on MiCOURT lets you search by name or case number. MiCOURT’s coverage is partial statewide — some participating courts show only recent criminal sentencings — so an older or missing case should be confirmed directly with the Clerk. The county’s own Court Cases landing page links to both the district and circuit court search tools.

Circuit Court Records — felony cases. Felonies are arraigned at the 86th District Court, then bound over to the 13th Circuit Court for trial. The Clerk’s Criminal Records Database covers circuit-court criminal matters. You can also search the Civil Records Database if you need related civil filings. The Circuit Court Records portal lists copy fees; the Clerk’s Office at 400 Boardman Avenue accepts check or money order by mail — do not mail cash. Confirm current per-page fees before submitting your request.

Sheriff’s Office records request. Booking records, incident reports, and arrest logs are held by the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office, located at 851 Woodmere Avenue in Traverse City. Walk-ins are welcome; no appointment is needed. Call (231) 995-5000 to confirm what records are available and what identification you’ll need to bring. The Sheriff’s Records Division handles report copies. Accident reports do not accept cash — payment by check, money order, or debit/credit card is required (cards carry a nominal additional fee).

Traverse City Police Department — city arrests. Arrests made by the Traverse City Police Department are held separately from Sheriff’s records. The department’s Central Records and FOIA office handles public-records requests for city arrests. If you’re unsure which agency made the arrest, call the Sheriff’s Office first — they can direct you.

Michigan State Police — Internet Criminal History Access Tool. The Michigan State Police maintain the state’s central criminal history repository. Their paid public name search — the Internet Criminal History Access Tool — reports public conviction information but does not show dismissed cases, warrants, traffic records, or local misdemeanors. It is a paid service; the fee is set by the state and confirmed at the MSP website. The Traverse City Post at 218 W. Fourteenth Street operates Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed weekends.

MDOC offender search — state prison sentences. If the person you’re researching is serving a state prison sentence or is on state supervision, use the Michigan Department of Corrections offender search. This tool covers MDOC-supervised individuals only — it does not show county jail inmates or people who have completed their sentences.

Mugshot policy. Booking photographs are part of the official arrest record and are generally public under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act, subject to a case-by-case privacy review. The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office does not publish a standing online mugshot gallery. To ask about a specific booking photo, contact the Sheriff’s Office directly at (231) 995-5000.

Are Grand Traverse County arrest records public?

Unless a case falls into one of a narrow set of exceptions, court filings and arrest records in Grand Traverse County are open to the public under Michigan law. The Michigan Freedom of Information Act, MCL 15.231 et seq., establishes the default-public rule: government records are available to any person who requests them, and the burden falls on the agency to justify withholding.

Juvenile records are the most significant exception. Proceedings in the Family Division of the 13th Circuit Court — delinquency cases involving minors — are confidential under Michigan’s juvenile-confidentiality provisions. Those records are not accessible through the public Criminal Records Database or MiCOURT. An adult who was adjudicated as a juvenile cannot obtain those records through a standard public-records request; a separate legal process applies.

Sealed and expunged records are a second category of exception. When a Michigan court grants a petition to set aside a conviction under MCL 780.621, the record is removed from public view. The public Criminal Records Database and MiCOURT will not show a set-aside conviction. Law enforcement agencies retain access, but a member of the public running a name search will not see it.

Victim-protection redactions apply in certain cases. Addresses and contact information for crime victims are routinely withheld. In cases involving sexual assault, domestic violence, or stalking, additional identifying information may be redacted before a record is released.

Pending cases — charges that have been filed but not yet resolved — are generally public. An arrest that ended in acquittal or a pretrial dismissal is a different matter: Michigan law provides for destroying the arrest record rather than sealing it, so a dismissed case may not appear in the public database at all, or may show only partial information.

Booking photographs fall under a case-by-case privacy exemption. The Sheriff’s Office applies this review individually; there is no blanket rule that all mugshots are released or withheld. Ask the Records Division when you submit your request.

What’s in a Grand Traverse County arrest record?

Depending on which system you pull from, the fields you see will differ — court-side docket entries and Sheriff-side booking entries are separate records that may not match exactly.

Court docket entries — what you find in the Criminal Records Database or MiCOURT — typically include: case number, filing date, charge description and statute, court dates, bond conditions, and disposition (guilty plea, verdict, dismissal, or nolle prosequi). The attorney of record appears in the docket as well. Defense counsel is listed by name once they file an appearance with the Grand Traverse County Courthouse; if you need to reach current counsel, the docket entry is the most reliable place to look. The Court Administrator’s Office can confirm whether an attorney of record is still active on a case.

Sheriff-side booking entries — held by the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office Records Division — typically include: booking date and time, arresting agency, charges at booking (which may differ from charges later filed by the prosecutor), physical descriptors, and any bail or bond information set at first appearance. The booking record does not automatically update when charges are amended or dismissed in court — the two systems are maintained separately.

A few practical distinctions matter when you’re comparing the two:

Charges at booking reflect what the arresting officer documented. The prosecutor may later file different charges, add counts, or decline to prosecute. The court docket is the authoritative record of what was actually charged and how the case resolved.

Bond information in the booking record shows what was set at first appearance before a judge. Michigan law requires a judge to release a person on personal recognizance or unsecured bond unless the judge finds on the record that something more is needed to assure appearance or public safety. The bond amount in a booking record is not fixed by offense type — it reflects the judge’s individual determination in that case.

Traverse City Police Department arrests are booked separately from Sheriff arrests. If the arrest was made by city officers, the booking record lives with the Traverse City Police Department’s Central Records and FOIA office, not with the Sheriff’s Records Division.

For the mugshot policy specific to a booking, contact the Sheriff’s Records Division — the policy is applied case by case and is not posted online.

How to expunge an arrest record in Grand Traverse County

A state conviction, a federal charge, two different legal processes — understanding which one applies to your situation is the necessary first step before filing anything.

Michigan’s expungement law uses the term “set aside.” The controlling statute is MCL 780.621. A petition to set aside a conviction is filed at the court that entered the conviction — for a felony tried in Grand Traverse County, that means the 13th Circuit Court; for a misdemeanor, the 86th District Court. The petition form is available through the State Court Administrative Office forms library.

Waiting periods. The clock runs from whichever comes last: the sentence, probation, parole, or imprisonment — never from the arrest date or the conviction date alone. Michigan law sets the waiting period at three or more years for most misdemeanors; five or more years for one felony, one or more serious misdemeanors, or a first drunk-driving offense; and seven or more years for more than one felony. If the court denies a petition, you must wait three years from the denial before petitioning again for the same conviction, unless the court sets an earlier date.

Application limits. A petition can set aside no more than three felony offenses in total, no more than two convictions for an assaultive crime in a lifetime, and no more than one felony for the same offense when it is punishable by more than ten years.

Automatic set-aside under Clean Slate. Many eligible convictions are now set aside automatically — no petition required. The automatic path covers no more than two felonies and four misdemeanors in a lifetime (that misdemeanor limit does not count misdemeanors punishable by 92 days or less). The waiting period for the automatic path is seven years from the imposition of the sentence for a misdemeanor, and ten years from the later of the sentence or release from prison for a felony. Serious offenses are excluded from the automatic path, and some offenses can never be set aside. Do not rely on a predicted date for when automatic set-aside will occur — the process runs on the state’s schedule, and the exact timing is not guaranteed.

Federal arrest records are a separate matter entirely. A Michigan state court order setting aside a conviction has no effect on federal records. If an arrest or conviction arose from a federal charge — prosecuted in U.S. District Court rather than the 13th Circuit Court or 86th District Court — a separate federal petition process applies. Federal expungement is narrow and fact-specific; consult a licensed attorney for federal matters. The Michigan Bar Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with counsel, and the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission can help identify public defender resources if you qualify.

Dismissed or acquitted cases. An arrest that ended in acquittal or a pretrial dismissal is handled differently from a conviction. Michigan law provides for destroying the arrest record rather than setting anything aside. This path does not require the same waiting periods as a conviction set-aside. Ask the Clerk’s Office or an attorney about the specific procedure for the case type you’re dealing with.

Filing fee and indigency waiver. The Grand Traverse County Clerk’s Office lists filing fees on the Filing Fees page. If you cannot afford the fee, ask the Clerk about an indigency waiver — courts have discretion to waive fees for qualifying petitioners. Confirm the current fee before submitting; do not mail cash.

After set-aside. Once a conviction is set aside, the public Criminal Records Database and MiCOURT will no longer show it. Law enforcement agencies retain access to the sealed record. The Michigan State Police criminal history repository is updated, but third-party databases may lag — a set-aside conviction can persist in commercial background-check databases until those services update their records.

Frequently asked questions about Grand Traverse County arrest records

How do I visit or contact the Grand Traverse County Clerk’s Office to get a copy of an arrest record?

The Grand Traverse County Clerk’s Office is located at 400 Boardman Avenue, Traverse City, and is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed on holidays. You can search the Criminal Records Database online before visiting to identify the case number. Bring a government-issued photo ID and confirm the current copy fee on the Filing Fees page before you go. Mailed requests should include a check or money order — do not mail cash. For Sheriff-side booking records, go to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office at 851 Woodmere Avenue; walk-ins are welcome, and you can call ahead at (231) 995-5000.

How do I petition to have a Grand Traverse County arrest record set aside or expunged?

Michigan calls this process “setting aside” a conviction. File your petition at the court that entered the conviction — the 13th Circuit Court for felonies, the 86th District Court for misdemeanors — using the form available from the State Court Administrative Office forms library. The waiting period runs from the later of your sentence, probation, parole, or release from imprisonment: three or more years for most misdemeanors, five or more years for one felony or a first drunk-driving offense, and seven or more years for more than one felony. An arrest that ended in dismissal or acquittal follows a separate path involving record destruction rather than a set-aside petition. If your arrest involved a federal charge, a Michigan state court order has no effect on federal records — that requires a separate federal process. The Michigan Bar Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with an attorney if you need guidance on which path applies to your situation.