When you have a specific name to look up, Pima County arrest records live across three distinct systems: the Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court at Case Records, the Arizona Judicial Branch’s statewide Public Access to Court Case Information portal, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office booking records at Inmate. The Superior Court sits at 110 West Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85701, and the Clerk’s main line is (520) 724-3228. Misdemeanor cases often land in one of the county’s justice court precincts rather than Superior Court — the Pima County Justice Court case search at Casesearch covers those dockets separately. Records-request fees and Clerk office hours: confirm before visiting, as hours and fees are subject to change.
If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Pima County inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.
If you need records outside Pima County
A nationwide search may surface records that pre-date the portal’s online window — older Pima County cases, records from other Arizona counties, or federal cases that county portals never index. The preliminary scan is free; a full report requires creating an account.
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How to look up arrest records in Pima County
Records sealed or set aside under Arizona law will not appear in standard public searches — if you believe a record has been sealed, see the sealing section below for what that means in practice. For everything else, Pima County gives you four distinct access paths, and each one covers different ground.
Pima County Justice Court case search. Misdemeanor and traffic arrests in unincorporated Pima County and many smaller municipalities often resolve in justice court rather than Superior Court. Search by name or case number at Pima County Justice Court Case Search. The court is located at the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court building, which opens Monday through Friday at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 5:00 p.m. Plan for security screening at entry — visitors pass through a checkpoint before reaching the clerk windows. The justice court also publishes a Records Retention Schedule that shows how long different case types remain on file.
Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court. Felony arrests and cases filed in Superior Court are maintained by the Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court at Case Records. The Clerk’s office is at 110 West Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85701. Call (520) 724-3228 to confirm current hours, records-request fees, and whether your request can be handled online or requires an in-person visit. Phone wait times at Pima County court administration can run long — calling mid-morning on a Wednesday tends to be less congested than Monday mornings. Criminal forms, including those needed to request case documents, are available at Criminal Forms on the Clerk’s website.
Arizona Judicial Branch statewide portal. The Public Access to Court Case Information portal covers Superior Court cases statewide, but it does not replace the Pima County justice court search — those dockets live on a separate system. Run both searches when you need a complete picture. Note that the statewide portal and the county systems may show different levels of detail for the same case.
Sheriff booking records and ADCRR. The Pima County Sheriff’s Office maintains current and recent booking data at Inmate; call (520) 724-2463 for records-request questions. The Pima County Adult Detention Complex at 1270 W Silverlake Rd, Tucson, AZ 85713 can be reached at (520) 724-2929. For anyone transferred to state prison, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry inmate search covers ADCRR custody. If the person is not on any county or state roster, check the federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator — some Pima County arrests involve federal charges handled by a separate authority entirely.
Are Pima County arrest records public?
A juvenile’s court file — the arrest record, the petition, the disposition — is shielded from public view under Arizona’s juvenile-confidentiality provisions, and that protection holds even when the underlying conduct would be a serious offense for an adult. Adult arrest records are a different matter.
Adult arrest records in Pima County carry a default-public status under A.R.S. §§ 39-121 et seq., Arizona’s Public Records Law. That statute presumes government records are open unless a specific exception applies. The exceptions that actually come up in criminal records work are: cases sealed under A.R.S. §13-911 (the 2023 sealing statute), judgments set aside under A.R.S. §13-905, active victim-protection redactions, and records involving ongoing investigations where disclosure would interfere with law enforcement.
A set-aside under A.R.S. §13-905 does not remove the record from public view — it annotates the record to show the conviction was set aside and the charge dismissed, but the underlying arrest and case information remains accessible. Sealing under A.R.S. §13-911 goes further: it closes the record to most public searches, though law enforcement retains access. Neither process is what Arizona statutes call “expungement” — that word appears only in A.R.S. §36-2862, which covers a narrow list of past marijuana offenses.
Victim-protection redactions are applied case by case. Certain identifying details about crime victims — addresses, contact information, and in some cases names — may be withheld from the public copy of a record even when the rest of the file is accessible. The Clerk’s office applies these redactions before releasing documents; you will receive the redacted version without needing to request it separately.
Booking photographs are public records in Arizona. To request a booking photo from a Pima County arrest, contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Office directly at (520) 724-2463 — the Sheriff’s Office holds photos for arrests it processed, while city police departments hold photos for their own arrests.
What’s in a Pima County arrest record?
Read the booking entry and the court docket as two separate documents — they come from different systems and show different things. The booking entry, generated by the Pima County Adult Detention Complex or the arresting agency, records what happened at intake. The court docket, maintained by the Pima County Courthouse or the justice court, records what happened in the case afterward.
A typical Pima County booking entry contains: the defendant’s full name and date of birth, booking date and time, the arresting agency (Sheriff, Tucson Police, or another jurisdiction), the charges as they were written at arrest, the assigned booking number, and the facility where the person was held. The Sheriff’s booking portal displays this information for current and recent detainees at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex, reachable at (520) 724-2929.
An arrest record shows the charges filed at the time of booking. Conviction status is a separate question that appears in the court docket, not the booking entry. A person can be arrested on a charge that is later reduced, dismissed, or result in an acquittal — the booking record will still show the original charge. To see what actually happened in court, pull the docket from the Pima County Justice Court Case Search for misdemeanors or from the Clerk of the Superior Court for felonies. The docket will show the case number, all filed charges, hearing dates, attorney of record, and the final disposition — guilty plea, dismissal, acquittal, or conviction after trial.
The Pima County Courthouse at 110 West Congress Street houses both the Superior Court clerk’s office and the Consolidated Justice Court. Confirm the correct floor and department before arriving — the building spans multiple floors and staff can direct you to the right window. Parking near the courthouse may require paid options across the street or in the El Presidio Parking Garage (Monday–Friday 6 a.m.–8 p.m., Saturday–Sunday 9 a.m.–6 p.m.).
For the Sheriff’s mugshot release policy, call the Pima County Sheriff’s Office at (520) 724-2463 — the policy governing which booking photos are released and when is not published in a single online document.
How to expunge an arrest record in Pima County
A.R.S. §13-911, which took effect in 2023, gives Pima County residents a concrete path to seal arrest and conviction records — and the waiting periods the statute sets depend on the offense class. For a class 2 or 3 felony, the waiting period after completing all terms of the sentence is 10 years. For a class 4, 5, or 6 felony, it is 5 years. For a class 1 misdemeanor, it is 3 years. For a class 2 or 3 misdemeanor, it is 2 years. Arrests that did not result in a conviction — charges dismissed, no charges filed, or an acquittal — can generally be sealed without a waiting period under the same statute.
After sealing, the record is closed to most public searches. Employers, landlords, and members of the public running a standard background check will not see it. Law enforcement retains full access — the record remains visible to police, prosecutors, and courts in any future proceedings. Certain licensing boards and government agencies may also retain access depending on the license type. Sealing is not erasure; it is a change in who can see the record.
Petitioning to seal an arrest record in Pima County means filing a Petition to Seal with the court that handled the original case. For Superior Court cases, that means filing with the Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court at 110 West Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85701, reachable at (520) 724-3228. For justice court cases, file with the Pima County Justice Court. The Clerk’s website lists Criminal Forms and Fee Waiver and Deferral Forms — if the filing fee creates a financial hardship, the fee waiver path is available at the same office.
A.R.S. §13-911 does not cover every offense class. Certain serious offenses — including dangerous crimes against children and offenses requiring sex offender registration — are excluded from eligibility. If the offense type you’re researching isn’t clearly covered, check the current statute text or consult a licensed Arizona attorney before filing. The State Bar of Arizona member directory lists attorneys by practice area. Self-represented petitioners can also use the AZ Courts Self-Service Center for guidance on forms and procedure.
Arizona has no general expungement law. The only statute that uses the word “expungement” is A.R.S. §36-2862, which covers a specific list of past marijuana offenses. For everything else, the available relief is either sealing under A.R.S. §13-911 or setting aside a judgment of guilt under A.R.S. §13-905. A set-aside dismisses the charge and lifts most civil penalties but leaves an annotated record visible to the public — it is a different and more limited remedy than sealing.
Quick-contacts table
| Resource | What it confirms | What it cannot confirm | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pima County Justice Court Case Search | Misdemeanor and traffic case dockets, charges, dispositions, hearing dates | Felony Superior Court cases; cases sealed under A.R.S. §13-911 | Search by name or case number; call the court to confirm hours before visiting |
| Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court (520) 724-3228 |
Felony case records, docket entries, attorney of record, dispositions | Justice court misdemeanor cases; sealed records | Visit 110 W Congress St, Tucson, AZ 85701 or call to request documents |
| the statewide court records portal | Superior Court cases statewide, including Pima County felonies | Justice court dockets; sealed cases; federal cases | Run alongside the county justice court search for complete coverage |
| Pima County Sheriff’s Office booking portal (520) 724-2463 |
Current and recent bookings at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex | Court case outcomes; older arrests; city police bookings | Search online; call for records requests or mugshot inquiries |
| Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry inmate search | Current and former ADCRR state prison inmates | County jail detainees; federal inmates; tribal custody | Search by name or ADCRR number; check federal BOP locator if not found here |
| Nationwide background search | May surface records from other states, federal cases, or older Pima County records that pre-date the portal’s online window | Cannot guarantee completeness; not a substitute for official court records | Use as a supplemental check; verify any result against official county sources |
Sources used for this page, verified 2026-08-31:
- Pima County Justice Court Case Search — online docket search for justice court cases, misdemeanors, and traffic matters
- Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court — Case Records — official source for Superior Court criminal case documents and docket entries
- Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court — Criminal Forms — forms for records requests, petitions, and criminal case filings
- Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court — Fee Waiver and Deferral Forms — indigency waiver path for filing fees
- Pima County Sheriff’s Office — Booking and Inmate Search — current and recent booking records at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex
- the state prison inmate locator — statewide prison custody lookup
- the state court docket search — statewide Superior Court case lookup
- AZ Courts Self-Service Center — Forms — self-represented litigant resources including sealing petition guidance
- Federal Bureau of Prisons — Find an Inmate — federal custody lookup for cases handled by federal authorities
- the state bar lawyer directory — licensed attorney search for legal assistance with sealing petitions
Found an error? Submit a correction — we review and update within 48 hours.
Frequently asked questions about Pima County arrest records
How do I find out what arrest records exist under a name in Pima County?
Run the name through the Pima County Justice Court Case Search for misdemeanor and traffic cases, and separately through the the trial court records portal portal for Superior Court felony cases. The two systems do not share data, so you need both searches for a complete picture. For booking records at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex, check the Sheriff’s booking portal or call (520) 724-2463. Records sealed under A.R.S. §13-911 will not appear in any of these public searches.
How does bond work after a Pima County arrest, and where do I pay it?
Whether a person can post bond directly at the jail or must first appear before a judge depends on the charge and the court. Call the Pima County Adult Detention Complex at (520) 724-2929 to ask about the specific case — jail staff can confirm whether bond has been set and what the amount is. The Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court at (520) 724-3228 handles court-ordered bond conditions for Superior Court cases. Confirm numbers and hours before visiting or calling, as procedures vary by charge type and court.
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