Arrest Records for Caddo Parish, Louisiana

When you have a specific name to look up in Caddo Parish, arrest records flow through two distinct systems: the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court, which holds felony and misdemeanor case filings at Caddo Parish Clerk Of Court, and the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, which maintains booking records and processes public-records requests through its online form. The Sheriff’s main office runs Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed on legal holidays. Confirm hours and any applicable fees before driving downtown — street parking is available near the courthouse, with a garage roughly two blocks away at Regions Tower.

If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Caddo Parish inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.

If your person has a history in other states

Caddo Parish’s online court portal covers cases filed in this parish, but it won’t surface records from other Louisiana parishes, federal courts, or any other state. A nationwide search may help when the person you’re researching has lived in multiple states or when you need to check records that pre-date the portal’s online window. The preliminary scan is free; a full report requires creating an account.

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 Caddo Parish

“Public records shall be open to inspection, copying, or reproduction by any person,” reads Louisiana’s open-records framework — and in Caddo Parish that principle translates into three concrete request pathways: the Clerk of Court’s online case portal, a Sheriff’s Office public-records request, and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections inmate lookup for state-custody cases.

Clerk of Court — online case search. The Caddo Parish Clerk of Court handles felony and misdemeanor case filings for the First Judicial District. The Clerk’s portal on caddo.gov is the cleanest path for court-side records: case numbers, charge descriptions, hearing dates, and dispositions. Departments inside the courthouse are clearly labeled and the building layout has been reorganized for easier navigation, though the elevators run small — plan accordingly. Debit card payments at the Clerk’s window may carry a processing fee; checks are not accepted.

Sheriff’s Office — public-records request. Booking-side records — arrest dates, charges at intake, booking photos — live with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. Download the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office public-records request form, complete it, and submit through the Sheriff’s public-records request portal. You can also reach the Sheriff’s records division by calling (318) 681-0725. The main office is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. At Caddo Correctional Center and substations, only money orders and cash are accepted — no credit cards.

DOC inmate lookup — state-custody cases. If the person you’re researching was sentenced to state prison rather than held at the parish jail, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections inmate lookup at doc.la.gov is the right tool. That database covers people in state custody; it does not duplicate the Caddo Correctional Center roster, which the Sheriff’s Office maintains separately at Inmates.

A practical note on portal lag: the Clerk’s online index reflects filings after processing, so a very recent arrest may not yet show a case number. If a name search returns nothing and the arrest was recent, call the Clerk or check the Sheriff’s booking roster directly before concluding no record exists.

Are Caddo Parish arrest records public?

Booking records and court filings sitting in separate offices — that’s the practical reality of how Caddo Parish handles criminal history. Both are open to the public under La. R.S. 44:1, Louisiana’s Public Records Law, which establishes a default-open rule: any person may inspect, copy, or reproduce a public record unless a specific statutory exception applies.

Arrest records — the booking data held by the Sheriff’s Office — are public from the moment of booking. They document the fact of an arrest, the charges alleged at intake, and the booking date. They do not establish guilt. A conviction record is a separate document maintained on the court side by the Clerk of Court; it reflects what a judge or jury decided, not just what law enforcement alleged.

The narrow exceptions to the default-open rule matter here. Juvenile records are confidential under Louisiana law and are not accessible through the same channels as adult records. Cases that have been expunged under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971 are removed from public view — the Clerk’s index will not show them, and the Sheriff’s booking data is sealed. Victim-identifying information in certain offense categories may be redacted before release. Active investigative records can be withheld while an investigation is ongoing.

Practically speaking: if you search the Clerk’s portal and find nothing, the absence of a result could mean the case was never filed, was filed in a different parish, or has been expunged. It does not necessarily mean no arrest occurred. Cross-referencing the Sheriff’s booking records — which reflect the arrest itself, independent of whether charges were ever filed — can clarify the picture.

What’s in a Caddo Parish arrest record?

Roughly a dozen distinct data fields appear across the booking and court-side records you’ll pull in Caddo Parish, though which fields are visible depends entirely on which system you’re looking at. The Sheriff’s booking entry and the Clerk’s docket entry are separate documents that live in separate databases — they cover the same underlying event from different institutional perspectives.

Sheriff’s booking entry — generated at Caddo Correctional Center — typically shows: full legal name, date of birth, booking date and time, arresting agency, charges as listed at intake (statute citation and charge description), bond amount if set, and a booking photograph. The Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office records division maintains these entries. For mugshot release policy, call the Sheriff’s Office at (318) 681-0725 — the specific policy governing public release of booking photos is not posted online and may vary by case type.

Clerk’s docket entry — generated at the Caddo Parish Courthouse after charges are formally filed — shows: case number, district court division, charge(s) as filed by the prosecutor (which may differ from booking charges), arraignment date, attorney of record, and disposition if the case has concluded. The disposition field is the critical one: it will show whether the case ended in conviction, acquittal, dismissal, or is still pending. A docket entry with no disposition means the case is open.

One important distinction: if a case was expunged, the docket entry is sealed. The Clerk’s index will return no result. The docket number itself may still exist in internal court records accessible to law enforcement, but the public-facing entry is gone. A sealed docket is not the same as a missing case — it means the court has acted to restrict access under the expungement statute.

Federal cases — arrests made by federal agencies and prosecuted in U.S. District Court — do not appear in the Caddo Parish Clerk’s system at all. Those records are held by the federal court clerk’s office separately.

How to expunge an arrest record in Caddo Parish

Who qualifies to petition for expungement in Caddo Parish — and how long they have to wait — depends on how the underlying case resolved, not on how serious the original charge was.

The controlling statute is La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971, which governs expungement of criminal records in Louisiana. Petitions are filed at the District Court through the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court. The Clerk’s office at the Caddo Parish Courthouse is the filing point; the petition goes to the First Judicial District Court.

No waiting period — arrests without conviction. An arrest that ended in dismissal, acquittal, or a refusal to prosecute carries no elapsed-time requirement. You can petition immediately after the case closes. This is the most straightforward path and the one most people with a dismissed case can pursue without waiting. An arrest that was simply never prosecuted is different — you must wait for the prescriptive period on the underlying offense to run before petitioning.

Waiting periods — convictions. For a misdemeanor conviction, the wait is five years measured from the completion of sentence, probation, or parole — not from the conviction date itself. For a felony conviction, the wait is ten years from the same completion point. A first marijuana-possession conviction has a shortened path: ninety days after completion of sentence. These are the timing rules the statute supplies; the five-year misdemeanor wait and ten-year felony wait are the numbers to plan around.

DWI pretrial diversion — a specific exception. A DWI resolved through pretrial diversion carries a five-year wait from the date of arrest before the record can be expunged, even though no conviction resulted. This is the one non-conviction category that does carry a hard waiting period.

How to file. Download or obtain a Petition to Expunge form, complete it with the case number from the Clerk’s docket, and file at the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court. A filing fee applies; if you cannot afford it, ask the Clerk about an indigency waiver — the statute provides a fee-waiver path for qualifying petitioners. The Louisiana State Public Defender’s office at Statepublicdefender can connect you with assistance if you need help preparing the petition. For attorney referrals, the Louisiana State Bar Association’s lawyer-search tool is at Findattorney.

What expungement does and does not do. After a successful expungement, the public-facing Clerk’s index no longer shows the case. The Sheriff’s booking record is sealed. Law enforcement agencies retain access to the sealed record — it does not disappear from their systems. The practical effect is that the record is removed from public view, not erased from existence.

Frequently asked questions about Caddo Parish arrest records

What does a Caddo Parish arrest record actually show, and where do I get one?

A Caddo Parish arrest record exists in two places. The Sheriff’s booking entry — held by the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office — shows the booking date, charges at intake, and booking photograph. The court-side docket entry — held by the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court — shows the formal charges filed by the prosecutor, hearing dates, attorney of record, and disposition. To get the booking record, submit a public-records request to the Sheriff’s Office or call (318) 681-0725. To get the court record, search the Clerk’s online portal or visit the Caddo Parish Courthouse in person during weekday business hours.

How do I get a Caddo Parish arrest record expunged?

Petitioning to seal an arrest record in Caddo Parish is a routine legal procedure filed at the First Judicial District Court through the Caddo Parish Clerk of Court. Under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971, an arrest that ended in dismissal or acquittal can be petitioned immediately — no waiting period applies. A misdemeanor conviction requires a five-year wait from completion of sentence, probation, or parole; a felony conviction requires ten years. A first marijuana-possession conviction qualifies after ninety days. File the Petition to Expunge with the Clerk, pay the filing fee (or request an indigency waiver), and serve the required agencies. The Louisiana State Public Defender can help qualifying petitioners, and the Louisiana State Bar Association offers an attorney-search tool for those who want private counsel.