Clinton County Arrest History
Clinton County arrest history can begin with the Sheriff, St. Johns Police, DeWitt Police, township police, Michigan State Police, or another commissioned agency. The agency that took the person into custody owns the officer narrative and arrest materials. The Clinton County Jail separately records intake, fingerprints, photograph, presented charges, bond, housing, and release or transfer. The prosecutor may authorize different charges, and the court may later amend or dismiss them.
That chain explains why two official searches can disagree without either being the same kind of record. A jail entry answers who is in local custody now or was recently booked. A court file shows the complaint and disposition. Michigan’s ICHAT shows a defined public repository subset after reportable events reach the Michigan State Police. OTIS covers MDOC custody and supervision, not the Clinton County jail.
Clinton County Jail Arrest Records
The Sheriff and jail operate at 1347 E. Townsend Road in St. Johns, apart from the courthouse. That location creates a useful rule: go to the Townsend Road channel for booking and custody facts, but use the State Street courthouse for filed charges and judgments. The Sheriff lists 989-227-6580 for jail information and 989-403-5090 for inmate inquiry. Keep those labels separate rather than assuming one number replaced the other.
The jail holds local pretrial detainees and many people serving county sentences. It can also house state, federal, or other-county boarders. The 2025 Sheriff annual report counted 1,706 bookings and an average daily population of 89. Those figures are a dated operating snapshot, not a live roster and not a count of convictions.
The official jail operations page describes Clinton County custody services and contact routes.
That county source should be checked before relying on a saved roster link, since custody systems and vendor paths can change.
Looking Up Clinton County Arrests
No single Clinton County arrest lookup covers every stage. Start with the channel closest to the event. Use a phone inquiry or official roster for present custody, the arresting agency for the report, and the court for the filed case. ICHAT and OTIS answer narrower state-level questions. When online access fails, a focused records request supplies the county fallback.
- Identify the arresting agency and approximate date, time, and place. Call 989-403-5090 for current Clinton County inmate inquiry, or use the roster link reached from the official Sheriff page if it is working.
- Request the incident or arrest report from the agency that made the arrest. Do not send every city or township report request to the Sheriff.
- Search 65A District Court for arraignment, bond, a misdemeanor, or early felony events. Search the 29th Circuit later if a felony was bound over.
- Use Michigan State Police ICHAT for public reportable Michigan repository events, and use MDOC OTIS only when state custody or supervision exists.
- Submit the Clinton County FOIA form to the Sheriff for disclosable booking material that is not routinely online. Call 989-224-5200 or confirm counter access before visiting.
- For federal custody, search the official Bureau of Prisons locator. It does not include Clinton County jail inmates or MDOC prisoners.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator shows the distinct search route for federal custody.
Its limits help prevent a federal result from being mistaken for a Clinton County booking search.
Who Owns Clinton County Arrest Records
The arresting agency owns its incident narrative, officer account, and related media. The jail owns the booking and custody entry. Central Dispatch owns a CAD log or 911 recording. The prosecutor owns its charging work, while the courts keep the complaint, warrant trail, arraignment, and disposition. Asking the wrong office can delay a Clinton County arrest records request even when the record itself is public.
| Record sought | Clinton County channel | Main limit |
|---|---|---|
| Incident or arrest report | Arresting police agency | Active-case and privacy redactions may apply. |
| Booking or custody entry | Sheriff and Clinton County Jail | Roster access may cover only current or recent custody. |
| CAD log or 911 audio | Clinton County Central Dispatch | Logs and recordings must be named separately. |
| Arraignment or bond | 65A District Court | A later felony result may be in Circuit Court. |
| Final felony judgment | 29th Circuit and County Clerk | The police narrative may not be in the public file. |
St. Johns and DeWitt police reports stay with their city departments. Township police and MSP materials follow their own official request channels. A shared jail does not make the Sheriff the owner of every arrest report.
Inside a Clinton County Arrest Record
A Clinton County arrest record can combine agency and jail fields, but public copies may redact victims, juveniles, witnesses, private identifiers, medical facts, confidential sources, investigative methods, and active-case material. Exact online roster fields need live confirmation because the official vendor form was not consistently available during research.
| Agency report number | Connects the arrest to the investigating agency’s own file. |
|---|---|
| Arrest date and authority | States when custody began and whether an arrest warrant or probable cause supplied the basis. |
| Booking number and time | Identifies the Clinton County Jail intake event. |
| Arresting agency | Names the office that owns the officer narrative and arrest materials. |
| Presented charges | Shows allegations at intake, which may differ from later prosecutor charges. |
| Bond or holds | May state the court-set terms or another legal reason for continued custody. |
| Booking photograph | May be created at intake, but public display or release must be confirmed with the official custodian. |
| Release or transfer | Records release, court order, sentence completion, or transfer when publicly available. |
Do not infer sensitive housing, medical, mental-health, or safety classifications. The research did not find those fields in an official public description.
Clinton County Booking Record Requests
Clinton County uses a central FOIA page instead of a separate commercial request portal. Direct a request to the department that created the material. For Sheriff booking records, name the Sheriff as custodian. For dispatch audio or a CAD log, use the Central Dispatch form. Court pleadings and judgments normally follow the clerk’s court-record process rather than county FOIA.
A focused request lists the date and time, location, agency, report or booking number, and the exact record type. Ask separately for the incident report, arrest or booking sheet, dispatch log, audio, and body-camera video. Electronic delivery can reduce copy handling. If part is withheld, request the nonexempt remainder and a written statutory explanation.
Clinton County Sheriff and Jail
1347 E. Townsend Road
St. Johns, MI 48879
989-224-5200
Inmate inquiry: 989-403-5090
Under Michigan FOIA, a public body generally responds within five business days by granting, denying, granting in part, issuing a fee notice, or taking one extension of up to ten business days. That response date is not always the production date. If an estimate exceeds $50, the county form says a deposit of half the estimate is required.
Booking Logs and Recent Arrests
The official Sheriff site is the safest starting point for any current Clinton County booking link, but the exact vendor path was not reliably exposed during research. If the roster is offline or a search control changes, call inmate inquiry at 989-403-5090. Ask whether the person is presently held and what public channel provides booking details. Never treat a copied vendor address as permanent.
A booking log generally answers a short-term custody question. Entries can roll off after release, transfer, or a vendor update. Absence from a live list does not prove that no arrest occurred. It also does not show how the prosecutor or court resolved a charge. Search 65A District Court for arraignment and bond, then the 29th Circuit if a felony was bound over.
Note: Clinton County publishes no verified countywide public warrant database, so contact the issuing court about your own possible warrant.
Clinton Arrests in State Systems
ICHAT is a $10 name-based search of public reportable Michigan criminal-history information. It can include reportable felony arrests and convictions and serious-misdemeanor convictions, but excludes warrants, federal and tribal records, traffic, juvenile, local-misdemeanor, other-state, suppressed, and set-aside records. It is not a recent Clinton County arrest log. Reporting lag or a name mismatch can also affect a result.
OTIS answers a different question. It can show MDOC prisoners and people under felony probation or parole, along with sentence and supervision data. It excludes Clinton County jail-only custody, people not yet sentenced, city lockups, and normally people discharged from MDOC supervision more than three years ago. A person may appear in a Clinton County booking yet never appear in OTIS.
The practical flow is: Arresting Agency › Clinton County Booking › Prosecutor Review › Court Disposition › MSP Repository. Fingerprints and qualifying arrest identifiers move to Michigan State Police, while courts and prosecutors report charging and disposition events. Each source has its own timing and scope.
Old Clinton County Booking Trails
A dismissal, nonpublic treatment, or conviction set-aside can change what appears in court and repository searches. It does not mean the original booking never occurred. An independently held police report, jail record, or old news item may raise separate access questions. For one’s own record, compare the newest certified court disposition with MSP’s record and use the agency correction channel when needed.
Clinton County posts local orientation and state forms for Michigan’s conviction set-aside process. Eligibility, waiting periods, excluded offenses, and automatic Clean Slate treatment depend on statute. There is no single five-year rule for every case. Relief begins with the convicting court, and an old booking record should not be confused with a conviction that remains public.
The county’s official conviction set-aside page provides the local form route.
That process addresses qualifying convictions, while access to an agency’s older arrest or booking file requires its own legal and records analysis.
Arrests Are Not Convictions
A Clinton County arrest proves that an agency took someone into custody under asserted legal authority. It does not prove guilt. Booking charges can be rejected, amended, dismissed, or resolved under another statute. A conviction requires a court result after a plea or finding of guilt. The final judgment, not the booking label, states that outcome.
| Arrest Record | Conviction Record |
|---|---|
| Created by the arresting agency and Clinton County Jail | Created through the court case and judgment |
| Shows an arrest or booking occurred | Shows a plea or finding of guilt and its disposition |
| Held in agency, jail, or disclosable booking systems | Held by the District or Circuit clerk and reported to MSP when required |
| May end in release, no charge, or later dismissal | May lead to sentence, appeal, or qualifying set-aside treatment |
When a booking and court result differ, use the Clinton County criminal court case to find the prosecutor’s filed count and the judge’s final disposition.
Note: An arrest is not proof of guilt, and a Clinton County booking may end without a filed charge or conviction.