Access Stewart County Booking Reports

Stewart County booking reports are maintained by the Sheriff's Office at the county jail in Dover. If you need to find out who has been arrested or check on someone in custody, the Sheriff's Office is the place to start. Stewart County sits in the northwest corner of Tennessee near the Kentucky border, and the jail handles all local arrests from the Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement working in the area. These records are public under Tennessee law. You can request them in person, by phone, or by mail without having to explain why you need them. The booking process records names, charges, bond amounts, and arrest details for every person brought to the jail.

Stewart County Sheriff's Office Records

The Stewart County Sheriff's Office operates the county jail in Dover and keeps all booking records for arrests made in Stewart County. Every person taken into custody goes through intake at this single facility. Staff record names, dates of birth, charges, bond amounts, and the arresting agency for each booking. The office handles arrests from its own deputies as well as Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and other agencies that work in the county.

You can reach the Sheriff's Office by phone or go in person during business hours to ask about booking reports. Staff can look up current and recent inmates by name or booking number. There is no charge to view records in person. If you need paper copies, fees follow the state schedule. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503, the custodian of public records must promptly make them available for inspection. The Stewart County jail follows this same rule.

The following screenshot shows the Stewart County Sheriff's Office website where you can find contact information and details about jail operations.

Reach out to the Sheriff's Office in Dover for the most up-to-date booking information in Stewart County.

Search Stewart County Arrest Records

Finding booking reports in Stewart County is a direct process. Call the jail and ask for the person by name. Staff will confirm if they are in custody and tell you the charges. You can also visit the office in person and request records at the front desk. For recent arrests, this is the fastest method.

For older booking records, you may need to submit a written request. The Sheriff's Office has seven business days to respond under Tennessee law. They will either hand over the records, deny the request in writing with a reason, or let you know how long it will take to gather the files. Stewart County is a rural county with a smaller jail, so wait times for records tend to be shorter than in bigger counties.

The General Sessions Court and Circuit Court in Stewart County handle cases after the initial booking. If an arrest led to formal charges, the court system has records of filings, hearings, pleas, and outcomes. The Circuit Court Clerk in Dover can pull those files for you. Court records and jail booking records are kept separately, so you may need to check both offices for a full picture of what happened after an arrest.

What Stewart County Bookings Show

Each booking report from the Stewart County jail contains the core facts about an arrest. You will find the full name of the person, their date of birth, and a physical description including height, weight, and eye color. The report lists the date and time of the booking along with the arresting agency and officer. Every charge appears with its own bond amount. If the person posted bond and left, the release date and time are in the record too.

Stewart County falls within the 23rd Judicial District. Criminal cases move from general sessions to circuit court as they progress. Preliminary hearings happen first. Then the case either goes to trial, gets a plea deal, or gets dismissed. Each of these steps adds to the paper trail that started with the booking. If you need to follow a case from arrest to outcome, start with the jail booking and then check the court records in Dover.

Stewart County Public Records Access

Booking reports in Stewart County are public records. Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503 makes that clear. You do not have to say why you want them. Walk in and ask. The office must let you see the records right away if they can. If the files take time to gather, the custodian has seven business days to act on your request.

Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-4-604, the state sets a fee schedule for copies of public records. The first hour of staff time to find and pull records is free. After that, you pay for labor at a rate the county sets. Black and white copies cost about $0.15 per page. Color copies are $0.50 each. Stewart County cannot charge more than this unless it can prove its actual costs are higher. These rules apply to booking reports just like any other public record held by the county.

Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(g), every government entity must have a written public records policy. This means the Stewart County Sheriff's Office should have a policy on file that spells out how to request records, what fees apply, and who to contact. Ask for a copy of the policy if you want to know the exact steps before you submit a request.

Statewide Tools for Stewart County

Tennessee has state-run databases that cover Stewart County arrests alongside every other county. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation runs TORIS, a statewide criminal background search. It costs $29 per request and returns a PDF with the full Tennessee criminal history for an adult. This goes beyond Stewart County and includes arrests reported to the TBI from across the state.

The Felony Offender Information Lookup from the Tennessee Department of Correction is free. FOIL shows anyone who has been in state prison custody. Search by name, TDOC ID, or State ID. You get booking photos, aliases, sentence length, and current location. If someone from Stewart County ended up in a state prison, this is how you find them. The tool runs 24 hours a day.

If you have trouble getting records from Stewart County, the Office of Open Records Counsel can help. This state office resolves disputes about access to public records. Reach them at (615) 401-7891 or call 1-866-831-3750 toll-free. They work with both the requestor and the records custodian to sort things out.

Cities in Stewart County

Stewart County includes the towns of Dover, Cumberland City, and Indian Mound, among other small communities. None of these towns meet the population threshold for a dedicated page on this site. All arrests in Stewart County are processed at the county jail in Dover regardless of which agency made the arrest.

Nearby Counties

Stewart County borders two other Tennessee counties. Each county runs its own jail and booking system. If an arrest happened outside Stewart County, check the neighboring county for that booking report.

View All 95 Counties