Arrest Records for Orleans Parish, Louisiana

When you need to look up an arrest record in Orleans Parish, the records live across several distinct systems — not one central database. Criminal District Court case filings sit with the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119; misdemeanor and traffic matters run through the Municipal and Traffic Court of New Orleans records portal; and booking records are held by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, reachable at (504) 658-4000. The New Courts Building handles court filings and can be reached at (504) 658-8500. Confirm hours before driving — parking near the Criminal District Court is limited and street spots fill early.

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 cases filed in this parish’s courts — they won’t surface federal court cases, records from other states, or arrests that predate the online window. A nationwide search tool may help fill gaps that local portals often leave, particularly if the person you’re researching has lived in multiple states or has federal charges alongside state ones.

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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 person end up after an Orleans Parish arrest — and which office holds the paper trail? The answer depends on the charge type and how far the case progressed.

Municipal and Traffic Court records (misdemeanors and traffic offenses). The Municipal and Traffic Court of New Orleans records portal is the online entry point for misdemeanor and traffic case history. You can also run a case search directly through the Municipal and Traffic Court case search tool. Both are county-official resources. The court’s main number is (504) 658-8500 — call to confirm current hours and any records-request fee before visiting in person.

Criminal District Court records (felonies). Felony cases are filed with the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office maintains a Court Services page that describes how the Sheriff interfaces with the Criminal District Court. For direct Clerk access, visit the courthouse in person or call the New Courts Building at (504) 658-8500. Cell phones are not permitted inside the courthouse; leave yours in the car.

Sheriff’s Office booking records. The Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff’s Office at (504) 658-4000 handles civil process and some booking-related inquiries. For detainee status and booking information, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office detainee search tool lets you look up a person by phone. Parking at the Sheriff’s facility is scarce — plan to use off-street options nearby.

Post-conviction transfers to state custody. Once a person is sentenced and transferred out of the parish jail, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections takes over custody tracking. The Louisiana DOC Orleans Parish location page is the official path for confirming state-custody status after a conviction. The statewide inmate lookup at Inmate Information covers individuals held in state facilities.

NOPD public safety data. The New Orleans Police Department publishes arrest data and public records through the City of New Orleans NOPD data and public records portal. This is a broad public-safety dataset — useful for researching NOPD arrest patterns or pulling incident-level data, but it is not a substitute for the court-side case record.

Are Orleans Parish arrest records public?

Court filings and booking records are public records in Louisiana — sealed cases, juvenile records, and victim-protection redactions are the narrow exceptions that limit access.

The controlling statute is La. R.S. 44:1, the Louisiana Public Records Law, which establishes a default-open presumption for government records. Under that framework, an Orleans Parish arrest record — the booking entry, the charges filed, and the court docket — is available to any member of the public who requests it, unless a specific exemption applies.

Juvenile records are the most significant exclusion. Louisiana’s juvenile-confidentiality provisions shield records of arrests and adjudications involving minors from public disclosure. If the person you’re researching was under 17 at the time of the arrest, the record is not accessible through the standard public-records channels. Requests involving juvenile matters must go through the Juvenile Court, and access is tightly restricted even then.

Expunged records are a second category of restricted access. Once a Louisiana court grants an expungement under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971, the public record is sealed. The docket entry may still appear in some court indexes — showing that a case existed — but the underlying case detail becomes inaccessible to the public. Law enforcement retains access to expunged records for their own purposes.

Victim-protection redactions apply in certain cases involving sexual offenses or domestic violence. The Clerk may redact identifying information about victims before releasing records to the public. This does not seal the case; it limits what personal details appear in the copy you receive.

Practically speaking: walk into the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk’s office at 2700 Tulane Avenue with a name and approximate date of arrest, and the Clerk can pull the docket. The Municipal and Traffic Court records portal handles misdemeanor and traffic cases online. Neither requires you to state a reason for the request — the Public Records Law does not require one.

What’s in an Orleans Parish arrest record?

Pull up a name in the Orleans Parish system and you’ll encounter two distinct record types that live in different offices and display different fields.

The booking entry is the Sheriff-side record. It captures what happened at the jail: the booking date and time, the arresting agency (typically NOPD or the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office), the charges as written at booking, the defendant’s physical description, and the assigned booking number. The Orleans Parish Prison maintains booking records; reach the jail at (504) 202-9339. Mugshot release in Orleans Parish follows the Sheriff’s Office policy — call to confirm current practice, as it is not uniformly published online.

The court docket entry is the Clerk-side record. It shows the case number assigned when charges were filed, the formal charge description (which may differ from the booking charge), hearing dates, attorney of record, bond amount set at first appearance, and the disposition — guilty plea, acquittal, dismissal, or conviction at trial. For felony cases, this record lives at the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk at 2700 Tulane Avenue. For misdemeanors and traffic matters, it’s in the Municipal and Traffic Court system at the New Courts Building, reachable at (504) 658-8500.

After a partial sealing — where a court seals some but not all records in a case — the docket entry itself may remain visible in the court index. What you’ll see is that a case with that number exists and was filed on a given date. What you won’t see is the charge detail, the disposition, or any documents filed in the case. The docket exists; the case detail is sealed. This distinction matters if you’re checking your own record: the case number may still surface in a name search even after a successful expungement petition, though the underlying content is no longer public.

The City of New Orleans NOPD data and public records portal publishes broader police data — incident reports, use-of-force records, and similar materials — that can supplement what you find in the court docket. It is not a substitute for the Clerk’s official case record, but it can provide context about the arrest itself.

How to expunge an arrest record in Orleans Parish

Roughly two dozen expungement petitions are filed in Orleans Parish each month — it is a routine legal procedure, not an unusual one.

The Clerk of Court is the filing authority for expungement petitions in Orleans Parish. Petitions are filed at the District Court level — for criminal matters, that means the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119. The governing statute is La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971, which sets out the eligibility criteria, the petition form, and the procedural steps. Confirm the current filing fee and hours directly with the Clerk at the New Courts Building, (504) 658-8500, before visiting — fees and accepted payment methods can vary by division.

Arrests that did not result in a conviction — dismissals, acquittals, and cases where the DA refused to prosecute — carry no elapsed-time waiting period under Louisiana law. You can petition to seal immediately after the case closes. This is the most straightforward expungement path and the one most people in Orleans Parish pursue after a charge is dropped.

Arrests that were never prosecuted require waiting for the prescriptive period to run before petitioning. The prescriptive period is the window within which the state could still bring charges; once it expires, the arrest becomes eligible for sealing.

Convictions carry waiting periods measured from the completion of the sentence, probation, or parole — not from the conviction date itself. Under the same statute, a misdemeanor conviction becomes eligible five years after sentence completion; a felony conviction requires ten years. A first marijuana-possession conviction has a shortened path: ninety days after sentence completion. A DWI resolved through pretrial diversion carries a five-year wait from the date of arrest, even though it is not a conviction.

To petition, you’ll file a Petition to Seal with the Clerk, serve copies on the DA’s office and the arresting agency, and pay the filing fee. If you cannot afford the fee, ask the Clerk about the indigency waiver process — Louisiana courts have a mechanism for fee waivers in expungement matters. The DA has an opportunity to object; if no objection is filed within the statutory period, the court typically grants the petition without a hearing.

After the court grants the expungement, the public record is sealed. Law enforcement agencies — including the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana State Police — retain access to the sealed record for their own purposes. Background checks run by the general public will not show the sealed case. If you’re petitioning for your own record, you can self-file using the forms available from the Clerk’s office, though an attorney familiar with Orleans Parish Criminal District Court practice can navigate objections if the DA contests the petition. The Louisiana State Bar Association attorney finder and the Louisiana Public Defender office are both resources if you need legal help.

Frequently asked questions about Orleans Parish arrest records

Where do I find my own Orleans Parish arrest record?

Your arrest record in Orleans Parish lives in two places depending on the charge type. Misdemeanor and traffic matters are searchable through the Municipal and Traffic Court of New Orleans records portal or the Municipal and Traffic Court case search tool. Felony cases are held by the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk at 2700 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119 — visit in person or call the New Courts Building at (504) 658-8500 to request your record. The booking entry (Sheriff-side) is separate from the court docket (Clerk-side); you may need both to get the full picture.

How do I get an Orleans Parish arrest record sealed or expunged?

File a Petition to Seal with the Orleans Criminal District Court Clerk under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971. If your arrest ended in a dismissal or acquittal, no waiting period applies — you can petition immediately. Misdemeanor convictions become eligible five years after sentence completion; felony convictions require ten years from the same point. A first marijuana-possession conviction has a 90-day wait. File at the Clerk’s office at 2700 Tulane Avenue, serve the DA and arresting agency, and pay the filing fee (ask about the indigency waiver if needed). After the court grants the petition, the public record is sealed — law enforcement retains access, but the general public does not.