Start with the right Tennessee record source
Tennessee criminal-record research can involve several different government systems. Trial court cases are generally maintained by local court clerks, statewide adult criminal-history reports come from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, felony custody and supervision records come from the Tennessee Department of Correction, and appellate cases use the Tennessee Judicial Branch Public Case History system. The fastest approach is to identify the type of record first, then go directly to the agency that maintains it.
Which Tennessee criminal record do you actually need?
A person’s criminal-justice history may exist in several separate systems. Searching the wrong system is one of the main reasons people conclude that a record does not exist.
Trial court case
Use for filed charges, docket entries, court dates, pleas, judgments, dismissals, sentencing and certified court records.
State criminal history
Use Tennessee Open Records Information Services when you want an adult Tennessee criminal-history check rather than one county’s court docket.
Arrest or incident record
Arrest reports, incident records and other law-enforcement records generally remain with the agency that created them.
Booking / current custody
Tennessee has no single statewide county-jail roster. Check the sheriff or detention agency in the county of arrest.
Felony custody / supervision
FOIL covers felony offenders who are or have been in Tennessee Department of Correction custody or supervision.
Criminal appeal
Use Public Case History for Tennessee Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals cases.
Understand Tennessee’s criminal court structure before searching
Tennessee’s criminal cases can move through different court levels, and the clerk who holds the record depends on where the case is in that process.
General Sessions Court
Every Tennessee county has General Sessions Court jurisdiction. Criminal jurisdiction varies by county, but these courts generally handle misdemeanor matters and preliminary hearings in felony cases.
Criminal or Circuit Court
Felony cases that proceed beyond preliminary stages may move to a Criminal Court or Circuit Court after grand-jury action, depending on the judicial district and county structure.
Court of Criminal Appeals
Criminal judgments appealed from Tennessee trial courts generally move into the Tennessee appellate system, where statewide Public Case History becomes useful.
How to find a Tennessee trial-level criminal case
Tennessee’s Administrative Office of the Courts does not provide one public statewide search that contains every General Sessions, Criminal Court and Circuit Court criminal file. Trial court records remain decentralized across local court-clerk offices.
The most reliable statewide starting point is therefore the official Tennessee Court Clerk directory.
Identify the county where the case originated
Start with the county where the arrest, citation, indictment or alleged offense occurred. Court records generally follow the court that handled the case, not the person’s current residence.
Identify the court level
A recent misdemeanor or preliminary felony matter may be in General Sessions Court. A felony indictment may be in Criminal Court or Circuit Court. A city ordinance case may remain in Municipal Court.
Use the clerk’s official website or case portal
Some Tennessee counties offer public online case searches. Others publish dockets only, and some require direct contact with the clerk.
Search by case number when you have it
A case number is generally more precise than a common name. When searching by name, confirm the county, court, charge and available identifiers.
Ask the clerk for documents that are not online
An online docket may show a case while the judgment, sentencing order or other filing remains available only from the clerk’s office.
Major Tennessee counties use different criminal case-search systems
This is why a statewide Tennessee article should not send every visitor to the same trial-court database. Large counties maintain different clerk systems, search interfaces and document procedures.
Nashville
Davidson County’s Criminal Court Clerk provides its own criminal case-information search, dockets, background-check services and other court tools.
Memphis
Shelby County Criminal Court and General Sessions criminal information is maintained through county systems. Certain searches require the Shelby County CJS portal.
Knoxville
The Knox County Criminal Court Clerk maintains Criminal Court and General Sessions-Criminal records and publishes court-date and record-access services.
Chattanooga
Hamilton County’s Criminal Court Clerk maintains Criminal Court and Sessions-Criminal dockets and publishes criminal court information online.
How to read a Tennessee criminal case correctly
The first charge shown in a docket is not necessarily the final outcome. Read through the case chronology and focus on the disposition.
| Record item | What it generally means | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Arrest | Law-enforcement custody or arrest event. | An arrest does not establish guilt. |
| Charge | Offense alleged by the state or other prosecuting authority. | Check whether the charge was amended or dismissed. |
| Preliminary hearing | Early proceeding commonly associated with General Sessions felony cases. | Look for whether the case was bound over to the grand jury. |
| Indictment | Formal accusation returned by a grand jury. | Compare the indicted charge with the original arrest charge. |
| Nolle prosequi | Prosecution is dropped as to the charge. | This is not the same as a conviction. |
| Diversion | Alternative case-resolution mechanism available under qualifying Tennessee law. | Check whether diversion was completed and whether expungement was later requested. |
| Disposition | The final determination of a charge. | This is the key field for determining how the case ended. |
| Sentence | Penalty or conditions imposed after qualifying adjudication. | Check incarceration, probation, fines and later modifications. |
Use TBI for a statewide Tennessee criminal-history check
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is the state’s central repository for criminal-history information. The public Tennessee-only criminal-history service is commonly accessed through Tennessee Open Records Information Services (TORIS).
Tennessee-only name-based check
Current published cost: $29 per request. Fingerprints are not required for the standard Tennessee-only public search.
Requests may be completed online or by mail. Electronic results require a valid email address.
Fingerprint-based federal check
TBI separately directs general-public nationwide FBI fingerprint checks through its contractor. This is not the same service as the $29 Tennessee-only TORIS search.
TBI currently lists the general-public FBI-only fingerprint service at $50.
How to run a Tennessee TORIS criminal-history search
Open the official TBI background-check page
Use the TBI website or TORIS directly. Avoid unofficial sites that imitate government background-check interfaces.
Choose the Tennessee-only general-public record check
This is the $29 name-based search and does not require fingerprint submission.
Enter the requested identifying information carefully
TORIS uses the information entered to conduct the name-based search. Incorrect spelling or date-of-birth information can affect the result.
Pay the non-refundable fee
The current public Tennessee-only fee is $29 per request.
Review the electronic result
TORIS states whether the searched subject does or does not have a Tennessee criminal-history record matching the information submitted. When a potentially matching record exists, the criminal-history information is provided.
What a Tennessee TBI criminal-history result does — and does not — prove
TBI’s criminal-history repository is built from fingerprint-based criminal submissions received from arresting agencies and disposition information reported by courts and other criminal-justice entities. The public TORIS search itself, however, is a name-based search.
- covers Tennessee criminal-history information
- is not a nationwide court search
- is name-based for the ordinary public TORIS request
- does not use fingerprints for the standard $29 public search
- does not normally include juvenile information
- may include juvenile information when the juvenile was transferred to adult criminal court
- does not automatically search every local court document
- may depend on data submitted to TBI by contributing agencies
What to do when a Tennessee criminal-history result is wrong
TBI provides a procedure for challenging a criminal-history result when the person whose record was searched believes the result is inaccurate.
TBI’s published TORIS materials currently list a $24 fingerprint-comparison fee for challenging a name-based result. Confirm the current fee and instructions before mailing fingerprints because agency procedures can change.
Tennessee arrest reports and police records are usually local
There is no single statewide public website containing every police report or arrest report created by every Tennessee law-enforcement agency.
The correct custodian is normally the agency that created the record:
Sheriff arrest
Contact the sheriff’s records division when the county sheriff made the arrest or maintains the jail record.
Municipal arrest
Contact the city police department when a municipal police officer created the arrest or incident report.
TBI or other state record
Use that state agency’s public-record policy and Public Record Request Coordinator when applicable.
How Tennessee public-record requests work
The Tennessee Public Records Act provides Tennessee citizens a right to inspect or obtain copies of qualifying state, county and municipal public records unless another law, court rule or exemption limits disclosure.
Tennessee’s Office of Open Records Counsel emphasizes an important point: there is no central public-record repository. The request should go to the governmental entity believed to be the actual records custodian.
Identify the agency that created or maintains the record
For example, a police report belongs with the police department; a sheriff booking record belongs with the sheriff; and a court judgment belongs with the appropriate court clerk.
Read that agency’s public-record policy
Tennessee government entities subject to the Act are required to maintain a policy explaining how requests are submitted, who coordinates them and what copy fees may apply.
Describe the record specifically
A useful request identifies dates, names, incident number, record type, location or other details that allow the custodian to find the record without creating a new report for you.
Choose inspection or copies
Tennessee law generally prohibits charging merely to inspect public records unless another law authorizes the charge. Reasonable copying and qualifying labor costs may apply when copies are requested.
| Issue | Tennessee rule / practical meaning |
|---|---|
| Who has a statutory access right? | Tennessee citizens. An agency may voluntarily provide access to non-Tennessee citizens. |
| Identification | An agency may require acceptable identification to establish eligibility for access. |
| Inspection | Generally no inspection charge unless another law provides otherwise. |
| Black-and-white copy guidance | The Office of Open Records Counsel’s reasonable-charge schedule currently uses 15¢ per standard black-and-white page as a general threshold. |
| Color copy guidance | The corresponding general threshold is currently 50¢ per standard color page. |
| Not every record is open | Statutes, court rules, federal law and other legal exceptions can make information confidential or exempt. |
Read Tennessee Public Records Act FAQs Find public-record request contacts
How to find county jail and booking records in Tennessee
County-jail custody is different from Tennessee Department of Correction custody. A person arrested yesterday and held in a county detention center may not appear in FOIL.
Tennessee warrant searches are generally county-specific
Tennessee’s Judicial Branch tells users with questions concerning a civil or criminal warrant, arrest or other trial-court matter to contact the court clerk in the county where the case originated.
Some county sheriff offices publish active-warrant searches. Others require phone or in-person verification, and not every outstanding warrant will necessarily appear in a public web search.
Use FOIL for Tennessee felony-offender custody and supervision records
The Tennessee Department of Correction operates Felony Offender Information Lookup (FOIL).
FOIL provides information about felony offenders who are or have been in the custody or under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Available information may include:
- offender photograph
- incarcerated / probation / parole / inactive status
- current location
- offense information
- sentence information
- parole-hearing status
- release information
- TDOC identification information
Need more detailed sentence information?
TDOC provides a separate sentence-information request process. The agency distinguishes requests concerning felony offenders in state prison from requests concerning felony offenders housed in county jail.
Tennessee Sex Offender Registry is a separate public-safety database
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation maintains the state’s public Sex Offender Registry. Local law-enforcement agencies and TDOC perform registration functions, while TBI maintains the public registry system and central registration information.
Registry profiles may include identifying information, address data, classification, registration/report dates, aliases and qualifying offense information.
Open Tennessee Sex Offender Registry
Search Tennessee criminal appeals statewide
Unlike Tennessee’s decentralized trial-court records, appellate cases do have a statewide public search maintained by the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts.
The Public Case History system covers cases in the:
- Tennessee Supreme Court
- Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals
- Tennessee Court of Appeals
- appellate procedural histories
- many appellate motions and orders
- opinions and judgments where available
The search supports fields such as:
- appellate case number
- case style
- party name
- business or organization name
How to obtain a certified Tennessee criminal court record
If another agency requires an official disposition, judgment or sentencing record, a screenshot or web printout may not be enough.
Contact the clerk for the court that handled the case and clearly state which document you need.
Personal research
Useful when you only need to read the document and no official certification is required.
Proof of case outcome
Often requested when another government agency needs proof of dismissal, conviction or other final result.
Specific court ruling
Ask for the exact judgment, sentencing order, expungement order or other filing when known.
When an older Tennessee case is missing online
Local court websites do not necessarily provide the same historical coverage. Some portals contain only newer electronic records while older files remain on microfilm, paper, archived systems or courthouse terminals.
Tennessee expungement: where the process begins
Tennessee criminal-record expungement begins locally with the court that handled the criminal matter. TBI processes qualifying expungement information after receiving an appropriate signed court order.
TBI states that qualifying charges may be eligible for expungement following outcomes including:
- dismissal
- nolle prosequi
- no true bill
- not-guilty verdict
- successful pretrial diversion
- successful judicial diversion
- conviction reversed and charge dismissed
- certain eligible misdemeanor or felony convictions
Start with the local court
Contact the court clerk in the county where the arrest or case occurred. Expungement is not completed merely by contacting TBI first.
Confirm why the case may qualify
Eligibility differs for dismissals, diversions and conviction expungements. Certain offenses remain ineligible.
Obtain the court’s expungement order
Once the court completes the local process, qualifying orders are transmitted to agencies that maintain related criminal-history information.
Keep a certified copy
TBI specifically recommends retaining a certified copy of the expungement order as proof that the expungement was validly completed.
TBI expungement guidance Tennessee Courts expungement eligibility
Juvenile criminal-history information is treated differently
Ordinary TORIS public criminal-history reports do not include juvenile information unless the juvenile was transferred to adult criminal court under applicable Tennessee law.
Juvenile court records also have separate confidentiality and access rules. Do not assume that a missing juvenile record means the event never occurred; it may simply not be available to the general public.
Federal criminal records require federal systems
Tennessee state trial-court systems, TORIS and FOIL do not replace federal criminal-record searches.
PACER
Use PACER to locate public federal District Court, Court of Appeals and bankruptcy case records.
Identity History Summary
A person seeking their own FBI Identity History Summary should follow the FBI’s fingerprint-based process.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation headquarters
TBI headquarters is the primary state-level location associated with criminal-history repository functions and TBI public-record requests.
Nashville
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation901 R.S. Gass Boulevard
Nashville, TN 37216
Main phone: 615-744-4000
Background-check contact
Phone: 615-744-4057
Use the TORIS/background-check process rather than an ordinary TBI public-record request when the record you want is specifically a Tennessee criminal-history report.
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Tennessee criminal-record search tips that save time
Start with county + court level
Tennessee’s decentralized trial system means the county is often more useful than a broad statewide court search.
General Sessions may come first
A felony arrest can begin in General Sessions before moving into Criminal or Circuit Court.
Use the appellate case to locate the trial case
Public Case History commonly shows the trial court and original trial case number.
TORIS is not the court docket
Use TBI for statewide criminal-history information; use the clerk for the actual local court file.
Check name variations carefully
A name-based search can miss records when spelling, suffixes or identifying information differ.
Use fingerprints when identity matters
Fingerprint comparison is much stronger than assuming two people with similar names are the same person.
Jail does not equal prison
Recent county custody belongs with the sheriff; FOIL is for Tennessee felony offenders connected to TDOC.
Ask for the final disposition
This is usually more useful than the arrest charge when determining the actual outcome.
Search older files offline
County electronic coverage varies; an older courthouse record can exist even when the website shows nothing.
Employment, housing and other regulated background-check uses
A Tennessee court docket, sheriff roster, FOIL record or registry entry is not automatically equivalent to a consumer report that complies with laws governing employment, housing, credit, insurance or other eligibility decisions.
Frequently asked questions about Tennessee criminal records
1. Is there a statewide Tennessee criminal court case search?
Tennessee has a statewide Public Case History search for appellate courts, but it does not replace local trial-court searches. General Sessions, Criminal Court and Circuit Court records are generally maintained by local clerks in the county where the case originated.
2. How much does a Tennessee TBI criminal-history check cost?
TBI currently lists the general-public Tennessee-only name-based criminal-history check at $29 per request. The fee is non-refundable.
3. Does the TBI background check require fingerprints?
The ordinary Tennessee-only general-public TORIS check does not require fingerprints. TBI separately offers fingerprint-based services for other purposes and nationwide FBI checks.
4. Does TORIS search other states?
No. The ordinary TORIS public criminal-history check provides Tennessee criminal-history information. It is not a nationwide criminal-record search.
5. Where can I find a Tennessee inmate?
Use Tennessee Department of Correction FOIL for felony offenders who are or have been in TDOC custody or supervision. For a person currently held in a county jail, use the relevant county sheriff or jail search instead.
6. How do I find a Tennessee arrest report?
Identify the law-enforcement agency that made the arrest or created the report. Contact that police department, sheriff or state agency and follow its public-record policy.
7. How do I find an active warrant in Tennessee?
Warrant access is generally local. Contact the court clerk or law-enforcement agency in the county where the warrant originated. Some sheriff offices also provide online warrant searches.
8. Can I correct an inaccurate TBI criminal-history result?
Yes. TBI provides a fingerprint-comparison process for disputing the identity associated with a name-based result. Missing disposition information can also be addressed using records obtained from the court that handled the case.
9. Can a Tennessee criminal record be expunged?
Certain dismissed cases, acquittals, no-true-bill cases, qualifying diversions and certain eligible convictions may qualify for expungement under Tennessee law. The process generally begins in the local court that handled the matter.
10. Does Tennessee Public Case History show local trial cases?
Public Case History is an appellate-court tool covering the Tennessee Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals. It does not serve as a complete statewide database of county trial-court cases.
Official Tennessee sources used for verification
Court technology, fees and agency procedures can change. These primary government sources should be rechecked before relying on information for an important legal or administrative purpose.
- Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts — General Public Resources
- Tennessee Courts — Clerk Directory
- Tennessee Courts — Find a Courthouse
- Tennessee Courts — Appellate Public Case History
- Tennessee Courts — Self Help Center
- Tennessee Bureau of Investigation — Background Checks
- TBI — Tennessee Open Records Information Services
- TBI — Diversions, Expungements & Dispositions
- TBI — Public Records Requests
- Tennessee Department of Correction — FOIL Offender Search
- Tennessee Department of Correction — Sentence Information
- TBI — Tennessee Sex Offender Registry
- Tennessee Office of Open Records Counsel — Public Records Act FAQs
- Tennessee Public Records Act Exceptions