Arrest Records for Orleans Parish, Louisiana

When you need an Orleans Parish arrest record, the records live across several distinct systems: the Municipal and Traffic Court of New Orleans handles misdemeanor and traffic case records searchable at Municipal and Traffic Court Records & Cases; the Orleans Criminal District Court, located at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119, holds felony case files; and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office maintains booking records at Orleans Parish Prison, reachable at (504) 202-9339. The New Courts Building courthouse line is (504) 658-8500. Confirm hours and fees before visiting, as Orleans Parish operates multiple court venues across the city.

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

Searching for records beyond Louisiana

Orleans Parish portals cover local cases only — federal court cases filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, records from other states where someone may have lived, and arrests predating the parish’s online window won’t appear in any local search. A nationwide database search may help surface those gaps. The preliminary scan is free; a full report requires creating an account.

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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 Orleans Parish

Where does a records check in Orleans Parish actually begin? The answer depends on the court where the case was filed — and Orleans Parish has more distinct court venues than almost any other Louisiana parish.

Municipal and Traffic Court of New Orleans — misdemeanor and traffic cases. The Municipal and Traffic Court Records & Cases search lets you look up cases by name or docket number at no charge. A separate traffic case search tool covers traffic-specific matters. These are the cleanest online options for minor criminal matters in Orleans Parish.

Orleans Criminal District Court — felony cases. The court sits at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119. Online case search is not available through a single public portal for Criminal District Court; call (504) 658-8500 at the New Courts Building to ask about in-person records access. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office Court Services division also supports criminal court operations and can direct you to the right clerk window.

Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office booking records — the Sheriff runs Orleans Parish Prison and maintains booking-level records. Call (504) 202-9339 for booking inquiries. For detainee location by phone, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office detainee phone search is the direct tool. The New Orleans Police Department public records and data portal covers NOPD arrest data and incident reports separately from Sheriff booking records.

Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections — post-conviction transfers. Once a person is sentenced to state prison, the Louisiana DOC inmate lookup at Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections — Orleans Parish is the path to confirm current custody location. The DOC system tracks state-sentenced individuals; it does not reflect pretrial detainees still held at Orleans Parish Prison.

Practical notes for in-person visits: Cell phones are not permitted inside Orleans Criminal District Court. Parking near the Tulane Avenue courthouse is limited — plan to arrive early or use nearby paid lots. The New Courts Building accepts cash, check, money order, and major credit and debit cards, but verify the accepted methods for your specific division before visiting. Parking near the New Courts Building is available; booking a spot in advance through a reservation service can help on busy court days.

Are Orleans Parish arrest records public?

Arrest records in Orleans Parish carry a default-public status under Louisiana law. The Louisiana Public Records Law, La. R.S. 44:1 and following, establishes that government records — including arrest records and booking information — are open to any person unless a specific statutory exception applies.

Juvenile records are the most significant exception. Records involving persons under 17 at the time of arrest are confidential under Louisiana’s juvenile-confidentiality provisions and are not accessible through the same public channels as adult records. The Orleans Parish Juvenile Court maintains those records separately, and access is restricted to the parties, their attorneys, and certain authorized agencies.

Sealed and expunged records are a second category of exception. Once a court grants an expungement under Louisiana law, the record is removed from public view — though law enforcement agencies retain access. If a record has been expunged, it will not appear in public searches through the Municipal Court portal or the Sheriff’s booking system.

Victim-protection redactions apply in certain cases. Identifying information for crime victims — particularly in sexual assault and domestic violence matters — may be withheld from public copies of records even when the underlying arrest record is otherwise public.

Mugshot release in Orleans Parish: the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office has historically published booking photos as part of the public record. For the current policy on booking photo availability, call (504) 202-9339 to confirm before relying on any third-party mugshot aggregator.

What’s in an Orleans Parish arrest record?

Pull up an Orleans Parish arrest record and you’ll find two distinct layers of information depending on which system you’re reading — the Sheriff’s booking entry and the court’s docket entry are separate documents that may show different fields.

Sheriff-side booking entry — generated at Orleans Parish Prison at the time of arrest. Typical fields include: full legal name and date of birth, booking date and time, arresting agency (NOPD district, State Police, or other), charge description and statute citation, bail amount set at first appearance, and physical descriptors. The booking entry does not reflect what happened in court — it captures the arrest itself.

Court-side docket entry — generated by the Orleans Criminal District Court or Municipal and Traffic Court after the case is filed. The docket shows: case number, filing date, charge as formally alleged by the District Attorney, attorney of record (defense and prosecution), hearing dates, and disposition if the case has concluded. Disposition entries include guilty plea, conviction after trial, dismissal, acquittal, or nolle prosequi (refusal to prosecute).

What remains visible after partial sealing: Louisiana’s expungement process can result in a partially sealed record in some circumstances. When that happens, the docket entry may still show that a case number exists — the Orleans County Courthouse record will reflect a case was filed — but the case-detail fields (charges, disposition, attorney names) are sealed from public view. A researcher searching by name may see a docket number with no accessible content. This is the intended effect of the statute: the existence of the proceeding may be visible in the index, but the substance is withheld.

The New Orleans Independent Police Monitor Phase I Archives contains historical NOPD arrest and use-of-force data that can supplement official court records for research purposes, though it is not a substitute for official court dockets.

How to expunge an arrest record in Orleans Parish

Roughly 30,000 expungement petitions are filed statewide in Louisiana each year — petitioning to seal an arrest record in Orleans Parish is a routine legal procedure, not an unusual step. The controlling statute is La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971, which governs the expungement of criminal records in Louisiana.

The Clerk of Court is the filing authority. You file your Petition to Expunge at the Clerk of Court for the district where the case was originally filed. For felony matters, that is the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk, located at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119. For misdemeanor matters handled in Municipal Court, file with the Municipal and Traffic Court Clerk. The New Courts Building courthouse line is (504) 658-8500; call to confirm current filing hours and the applicable filing fee before visiting, as fees are set by the court and subject to change.

Eligibility — arrests that did not result in conviction: An arrest that ended in dismissal, acquittal, or a refusal to prosecute by the District Attorney carries no elapsed-time waiting period under the same statute. You can petition immediately once the case is closed. This is the most straightforward expungement path in Orleans Parish and covers a significant share of arrest records.

Eligibility — arrests that resulted in conviction: The waiting period runs from the completion of the sentence, probation, or parole — not from the conviction date itself. For a misdemeanor conviction, the wait is five years after completion of sentence. For a felony conviction, the wait is ten years. A first marijuana-possession conviction has a shortened path: eligible after ninety days from completion of sentence. Current Louisiana law does not impose a per-lifetime quota or a “once every five years” frequency cap on misdemeanor expungements — the waiting period is the whole of the timing rule.

DWI pretrial diversion: A DWI resolved through pretrial diversion is the one non-conviction that carries a hard wait — five years from the date of arrest — before the record can be expunged.

Self-petition vs. attorney-assisted: Louisiana allows self-represented petitioners to file under art. 971. The Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk’s office can provide the standard petition form. That said, Orleans Parish’s multi-court structure — Criminal District Court, Municipal Court, and Second City Court (located at 225 Morgan Street, Room 206, New Orleans, LA 70114) — means the right filing venue matters. An attorney familiar with Orleans Parish practice can confirm the correct court and catch procedural issues before they delay the petition. The Louisiana State Bar Association attorney finder and the Louisiana Public Defender locator are the official referral paths for legal help.

Indigency waiver: If you cannot afford the filing fee, ask the Clerk about a fee waiver based on indigency. The court has discretion to waive fees for qualified petitioners.

What remains accessible after sealing: Law enforcement agencies — including NOPD, the Orleans Parish Sheriff, and state police — retain access to expunged records. The public does not. Background check companies that pull directly from court dockets should not return the record after expungement, but third-party data aggregators that cached the record before sealing may still display it; those companies can be contacted directly to request removal.

Quick-contacts table

Frequently asked questions about Orleans Parish arrest records

Where do I find my own Orleans Parish arrest record, and what will it show?

Your record may appear in more than one system depending on the court that handled the case. For misdemeanor and traffic matters, search the Municipal and Traffic Court Records & Cases search by your name. For felony matters, contact the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk at 2700 Tulane Avenue — call (504) 658-8500 to ask about in-person records access. Each record will show the booking date, charges as filed, case number, and disposition if the case has concluded. Booking-level data (arrest date, arresting agency, bail amount) lives with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, which is a separate system from the court docket.

How do I get an Orleans Parish arrest record expunged?

File a Petition to Expunge at the Clerk of Court for the court where the case was filed — Orleans Criminal District Court for felonies (2700 Tulane Avenue), or the Municipal and Traffic Court Clerk for misdemeanors. The controlling statute is La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971. An arrest that ended in dismissal or acquittal can be petitioned immediately with no waiting period. A misdemeanor conviction requires five years after completion of sentence; a felony conviction requires ten years. Call (504) 658-8500 to confirm current filing fees and hours before visiting. If you need legal help, the Louisiana State Bar Association attorney finder and the Louisiana Public Defender locator are the official referral paths.