Tennessee Criminal History Tennessee Criminal History

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About Tennessee Criminal History

Tennessee criminal records are divided among several public offices and systems. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation maintains the state criminal-history repository, the Tennessee Department of Correction operates the felony-offender locator, and TBI also maintains the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry. Trial case files, booking records, and many police records remain with courts and agencies in Tennessee's 95 counties. We built this private reference site to make those lines clear and help readers identify the statewide system or local records custodian that holds the information they need.

Why We Built This Site

Public access in Tennessee depends on knowing who created the record. TBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division maintains the fingerprint-founded state repository and releases name-based checks through Tennessee Open Records Information Services. TDOC tracks felony offenders in state custody or supervision through FOIL. TBI separately runs the statewide public registry. County clerks, sheriffs, jails, and police departments retain the source case, booking, and incident material. The purpose of Tennessee Criminal History is to distinguish those systems and route readers to the proper official source. Statewide subjects begin here, while the directory of Tennessee counties leads to local court and law-enforcement details.

What You Will Find Here

  • Statewide system explanations: what TORIS, TDOC FOIL, the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry, and the appellate case-history system do and do not contain
  • Official check instructions: how Tennessee name checks and authorized fingerprint checks work through the TBI repository
  • Court record guidance: how to locate and understand Tennessee criminal court case records
  • Expungement context: where qualifying Tennessee requests begin and why the originating court remains important
  • County routing: a directory of all 95 Tennessee counties for local clerks, sheriffs, jails, and police records

What We Cannot Do

Tennessee Criminal History is a privately operated reference site. It is not connected with TBI, TDOC, any Tennessee court, or any county or municipal agency. Those limits mean we cannot perform official government functions:

  • We cannot issue certified copies of any criminal record, court document, or rap sheet
  • We cannot guarantee that every phone number, fee, or address listed on this site is current right now
  • We cannot run an official background check or retrieve a government record for anyone
  • We cannot give legal advice about a Tennessee charge, case, warrant, or expungement
  • We cannot submit an expungement petition, public-records request, or other filing for a visitor

An official copy must come from TBI, the Tennessee court, or the local agency that created and maintains the record. This private site can identify a source but cannot issue its documents.

Search Partners

Search boxes on some pages are supplied by outside providers. Each provider controls its service, prices, results, and data practices. A completed paid signup may produce a referral fee for Tennessee Criminal History, which helps support free access to the reference content. We do not set a partner's charges and cannot control or verify the records returned by its tools.