Court filings for Monroe County criminal cases live in two places: the statewide MyCase portal and the Monroe County Clerk of Court, reachable at (812) 349-2614. The Clerk’s office at the Monroe County Courthouse is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed on holidays — plan to arrive well before closing, as the doors may close before the posted time. Booking records held by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office are a separate system from court dockets and require a direct records request.
If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Monroe County inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.
Searching for records beyond Indiana
Monroe County’s court portal covers cases filed here, but it won’t surface records from other Indiana counties, federal courts, or states where someone may have lived before moving to Bloomington. A nationwide search may help fill gaps that local portals often leave — particularly for name variants, records predating the portal’s online window, or verifying what appears on your own record across multiple jurisdictions.
Sponsored: Nationwide Criminal Background Check (we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you).
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 Monroe County
Pull up Indiana’s open-records law — Ind. Code § 5-14-3 — and you’ll find that booking records in Monroe County are public documents, which means you have several concrete pathways to retrieve them without needing an attorney or a court order.
MyCase — online court dockets. The Indiana Judicial Branch: Monroe County portal connects directly to MyCase, Indiana’s statewide case-search system. Search by name or case number to see charges filed, hearing dates, and dispositions for Monroe County Circuit Court and Superior Court cases. MyCase is the fastest route for court-side records. Note that MyCase reflects what the Clerk has entered; there can be a short lag between a court event and its appearance online.
Monroe County Clerk of Court — records requests. For certified copies, older cases, or anything not yet visible online, go to the Monroe County Clerk of Court records request page. The Clerk’s office is inside the Monroe County Courthouse. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Reach the Clerk at (812) 349-2614. Phone lines can be congested — allow multiple attempts if you don’t get through on the first call. The Clerk’s office also offers online appointment booking through Picktime if you want to schedule an in-person visit. Parking near the Courthouse is limited and paid; budget time to find a spot before your appointment.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office — booking records. Arrest and booking records generated at the jail sit with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, not the Clerk. These are separate from court dockets and include booking date, charges at the time of arrest, and physical descriptors. Submit a public-records request directly to the Sheriff’s Office. The Monroe County Justice Building can be reached at (812) 876-5515. Wait times at the Justice Building tend to be shorter on Mondays and Thursdays than on Fridays. Confirm numbers and hours before visiting or calling.
Bloomington Police Department — city arrests. Arrests made by the Bloomington Police Department are booked into the Monroe County jail system, but the originating agency for city arrests is BPD at 220 E. 3rd St., Bloomington. Call (812) 349-2780 for records inquiries. BPD hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Parking is available at that location.
Indiana Department of Correction — state prison records. If the person you’re researching was sentenced to an Indiana state facility rather than the county jail, use the IDOC offender search to locate their current status and facility assignment. The IDOC lookup covers people in state custody; it does not show county jail bookings.
Find My Case — county circuit court lookup. The Monroe County: Find My Case tool on the county’s own website routes you to case records for the Circuit Court specifically. It’s a useful direct link if you already know the case is in Circuit Court rather than Superior Court.
Are Monroe County arrest records public?
Since Indiana adopted its current open-records framework, arrest and booking records in Monroe County have carried a default-public status under state law. Ind. Code § 5-14-3 — the Indiana Access to Public Records Act — establishes that government records are open to inspection unless a specific exemption applies. Booking records, including booking photographs, fall squarely within the public category under that statute.
The exceptions are narrow but real. A record that has been expunged under Ind. Code § 35-38-9 is no longer accessible to the public — the court order removes it from public view, though law enforcement agencies retain access. Juvenile records are handled under a separate statutory framework and are generally not public; they require a court order to access. Cases involving victims of certain crimes may have identifying information redacted to protect those individuals, even when the underlying case record remains public.
Sealed or expunged records won’t appear in MyCase searches or in response to Clerk records requests. If a name search returns no results and you have reason to believe a case existed, the record may have been expunged — or it may simply predate the portal’s online window. Older paper-era records may require an in-person request at the Clerk’s office.
Pending cases — charges filed but not yet resolved — are public. An arrest record showing charges does not mean a conviction occurred. The disposition field in a docket entry will show whether the case ended in conviction, dismissal, acquittal, or another outcome. If the disposition field is blank, the case is likely still active.
Federal cases — arrests made by federal agencies and prosecuted in U.S. District Court — do not appear in Monroe County’s state court system at all. Those records live in the federal PACER system, which is separate from MyCase and the Clerk’s portal.
What’s in a Monroe County arrest record?
When you pull a record and find charges listed, that reflects what was alleged at the time of arrest — conviction status appears separately in the docket, and the two don’t always match what you might expect.
Booking-side fields (Sheriff’s records). The Monroe County Justice Building generates a booking entry when someone is processed into custody. That entry typically includes: full legal name and any aliases, date and time of booking, charges as listed at arrest, physical descriptors (height, weight, date of birth), arresting agency (Monroe County Sheriff, Bloomington Police Department, Indiana State Police, or another agency), and a booking number. Booking photographs are part of the booking record and are public under Ind. Code § 5-14-3. For the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office mugshot release policy, call the Sheriff’s Office at (812) 876-5515 — the specific policy isn’t posted online.
Court-side fields (Clerk’s docket). Once a case is filed in court, the Monroe County Courthouse docket adds a separate layer of information. Docket entries show: case number (formatted as county-year-case type-sequence), charges as formally filed by the prosecutor (which may differ from arrest charges), all hearing dates and outcomes, bond amount and conditions, attorney of record for both prosecution and defense, and the final disposition — guilty plea, conviction at trial, dismissal, or acquittal. The Monroe County: Find My Case tool and MyCase both display docket entries.
What the record does not show. Neither the booking record nor the court docket tells you whether someone was actually guilty. Charges filed are allegations. A dismissal or acquittal means the case ended without a conviction — but the arrest record itself remains in the public file unless expunged. If you’re checking your own record to understand what a background check will surface, the docket disposition is the field that matters most.
Probation records are maintained separately by the Monroe County Probation Department and are not part of the public court docket. The Monroe County Probation Department publishes aggregate reports, but individual supervision records are not public.
How to expunge an arrest record in Monroe County
Petitioning to seal an arrest record in Monroe County is a routine legal procedure — and juvenile records have their own separate sealing procedures that are typically more accessible than the adult expungement process.
For adult records, Indiana handles all criminal-record relief through Ind. Code § 35-38-9 (Indiana “Second Chance Law”). The law is tiered by offense level, and the tier determines both eligibility and the waiting period before you can file.
Arrests with no conviction. If you were arrested in Monroe County but the case was dismissed, you were acquitted, or charges were never filed, you can petition to expunge the arrest record one year after the arrest date. Dismissals and acquittals are expunged automatically by court order — that order takes effect no sooner than 60 days after it’s entered. You don’t need to wait years; the one-year window from arrest is the controlling timeline for non-conviction records.
Misdemeanor convictions. A misdemeanor conviction becomes eligible for expungement five years after the conviction date, provided you meet the clean-record requirements. The court must grant the petition if you qualify — it’s not discretionary.
Class D / Level 6 felony convictions. The waiting period is eight years from conviction. As with misdemeanors, the court must grant a qualifying petition.
More serious felonies. The court may expunge after the later of eight years from conviction or three years from completing the sentence. The most serious felonies — and those involving sex offenses, violent offenses, or official misconduct — require the prosecutor’s written consent and have a waiting period of the later of ten years from conviction or five years from completing the sentence. Sex, violent, and official-misconduct offenses are excluded from the standard expungement path entirely.
Where to file. A verified petition must be filed in the county court where the conviction occurred — for Monroe County convictions, that means filing at the Monroe County Courthouse. For non-conviction records, file in the county of arrest. Indiana requires that all petitions in a given county be filed together in a single petition. You effectively get one expungement petition per lifetime, so timing matters. Confirm the current statute text or ask the Clerk at (812) 349-2614 before filing.
Filing fees and indigency waivers. A filing fee applies to expungement petitions in Monroe County. An indigency waiver path exists for those who cannot afford the fee — ask the Clerk’s office about the waiver process when you call or visit.
Self-petition vs. attorney-assisted. Indiana allows self-represented petitioners to file expungement petitions. The Indiana Judicial Branch publishes self-help forms. That said, the one-petition-per-lifetime rule makes getting the timing right important. If your situation involves multiple cases, multiple counties, or a serious felony requiring prosecutor consent, consulting an attorney before filing is worth considering. Find a licensed Indiana attorney through the Indiana Roll of Attorneys, or contact the Indiana Public Defender Council for low-income assistance options.
After expungement. Once the order takes effect, the record is removed from public view — it won’t appear in MyCase searches or Clerk records requests. Law enforcement agencies retain access to expunged records. The record will not appear on most background checks run by private employers or landlords, but certain licensing boards and government agencies may still see it.
Quick-contacts decision table
| Resource | What it confirms | What it cannot confirm | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyCase statewide portal | Case filings, charges, hearing dates, dispositions for Monroe County courts | Booking records; cases predating online window; expunged cases | Search by name or case number; no account required |
| Monroe County Clerk of Court records requests · (812) 349-2614 | Certified copies of court records; older paper-era cases; case status | Sheriff booking records; expunged records | Call or visit Mon–Fri 8 a.m.–4 p.m.; arrive before closing |
| Monroe County Sheriff’s Office · (812) 876-5515 | Booking records, booking photos, arrest details held by the Sheriff | Court docket entries; IDOC state-prison records | Submit a public-records request; call ahead to confirm process |
| Indiana Department of Correction offender search | Current custody status and facility for state-sentenced individuals | County jail bookings; court dockets; non-convicted individuals | Search by name or DOC number on the IDOC offender locator |
| Monroe County: Find My Case | Circuit Court case records specifically | Superior Court cases; booking records; federal cases | Use for Circuit Court lookups; use MyCase for broader coverage |
| Nationwide search | May surface records from other states, federal cases, or prior addresses | Cannot guarantee completeness; not a consumer report under FCRA | Use to check coverage gaps after exhausting local portals |
Related Monroe County resources
- Monroe County warrant search — check for an active warrant in Monroe County.
- Monroe County inmate search — locate someone currently in custody at the Monroe County Justice Building.
Sources used for this page, verified 2026-07-26:
- Indiana Judicial Branch: Monroe County — county-level court records portal and MyCase access point.
- Monroe County: Find My Case — Circuit Court case lookup tool.
- Monroe County Clerk of Court records requests — official records-request instructions and forms.
- Indiana Courts: Public Records — statewide guidance on court public-records access, including bulk data and confidential-request procedures.
- Indiana Department of Correction offender search — state-prison custody and facility lookup.
- Indiana Code — full text of Indiana statutes including Ind. Code § 5-14-3 (APRA) and Ind. Code § 35-38-9 (Second Chance Law).
- Monroe County Probation Department Reports & Presentations — aggregate probation data for Monroe County.
- Indiana Roll of Attorneys — licensed attorney search for expungement assistance.
- Indiana Public Defender Council — low-income legal assistance locator.
Found an error or outdated detail? Submit a correction — we review and update within 48 hours.
Frequently asked questions about Monroe County arrest records
How do I find out what’s on my Monroe County arrest record?
Run your name through MyCase to see what’s in the court system. That search covers Monroe County Circuit Court and Superior Court filings and shows charges, hearing dates, and dispositions. For booking records held by the Sheriff — which may include arrests that didn’t result in court filings — contact the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office at (812) 876-5515 and submit a public-records request. If you want a certified copy of a court record, call the Monroe County Clerk at (812) 349-2614 or visit the Clerk’s office at the Monroe County Courthouse, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Can I get a Monroe County arrest record expunged, and how long does it take?
Indiana’s expungement law — Ind. Code § 35-38-9 (Indiana “Second Chance Law”) — covers most Monroe County arrest records. If you were arrested but not convicted, you can petition one year after the arrest date; dismissals and acquittals are expunged automatically by court order (effective no sooner than 60 days after entry). A misdemeanor conviction requires a five-year wait from conviction; a Class D or Level 6 felony requires eight years. More serious felonies have longer waiting periods and may require the prosecutor’s written consent. File your petition at the Monroe County Courthouse — all petitions for Monroe County cases must be filed together in a single petition. Because Indiana allows effectively one expungement petition per lifetime, confirm current eligibility requirements with the Clerk at (812) 349-2614 or review the current statute text before filing.
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