Nantucket County Booking Reports

Nantucket County booking reports are kept by the Sheriff's Office and the Nantucket Police Department. This is the smallest county in Massachusetts by land area. The entire county sits on one island about 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Despite its small size, Nantucket still has all the same record-keeping duties as any other county in the state. You can request booking reports here under the same public records laws that cover the rest of Massachusetts. The Nantucket Police Department handles most local arrests, and the Sheriff's Office manages the county jail and the booking process for people held there.

Nantucket County Sheriff Booking Reports

The Nantucket County Sheriff's Office runs the county jail. When a person is held after arrest, the sheriff's staff create a booking report. This report includes the person's name, charges, date of birth, booking time, and bail amount. Nantucket County booking reports from the jail are public records under Massachusetts law.

You can contact the sheriff's office to ask for booking reports. Put your request in writing if you can. Include as much detail as possible, like the person's name and the date of the arrest. The office is small, so response times may vary. There is no online database for Nantucket County booking reports from the sheriff. You have to call, write, or go in person. Under M.G.L. c. 66 § 10, the office has ten business days to respond to a public records request.

Nantucket Police Booking Reports

The Nantucket Police Department handles most arrests on the island. They keep their own booking records and daily arrest logs. M.G.L. c. 41 § 98F requires every police department in the state to keep a daily log. This log shows who was arrested, what the charge was, and when it happened. The daily log is public. You can view it at the station at no cost.

Nantucket is the only town in Nantucket County. That makes the police department the sole local law enforcement agency here. Every local arrest on the island goes through this one department. Booking reports from the Nantucket Police Department contain more detail than the daily log. They include physical descriptions, mugshots in some cases, and notes about the arrest. To get the full booking report, you file a public records request with the department.

Summer months bring a surge in population. Visitors come from all over. Arrest numbers tend to rise from June through September. If you are looking for a booking report from the busy season in Nantucket County, keep that in mind when you give the department a date range.

Note: The daily arrest log at the Nantucket Police Department is available for walk-in viewing during business hours at no charge.

Nantucket County Records Through CORI

Massachusetts runs a statewide criminal records system called CORI. It stands for Criminal Offender Record Information. The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services manages it. CORI pulls data from booking reports and court records across all counties, including Nantucket County. A CORI check tells you if someone has a criminal history in the state.

The public can use iCORI to run a check. It costs $25 per name. You need the person's full name and date of birth. Results show convictions and pending cases. iCORI will not give you the full booking report from Nantucket County, but it shows whether an arrest led to a conviction and what the sentence was. This can help when you cannot get the booking report directly from the local office.

The rules for CORI come from M.G.L. c. 6 §§ 167-178B. These sections control who can see records and what shows up. Some arrests in Nantucket County may not appear in CORI if the charges were dropped or the case was sealed. The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security oversees the system and sets policy for all counties.

How to Get Nantucket County Booking Reports

You have a legal right to request booking reports in Nantucket County. The state public records law, M.G.L. c. 66 § 10, covers this. Send your request in writing to the agency that holds the record. For a police arrest, that is the Nantucket Police Department. For a jail booking, contact the sheriff.

Be specific in your request. Give the full name, the date or a range of dates, and any other facts you know. The clearer you are, the faster the office can find what you need. The Public Records Guide from the Secretary of the Commonwealth lays out the rules for fees and response times. Most small requests have no fee or a very low one. Nantucket County offices follow the same fee schedule as other towns and counties in the state.

If you get a denial or the office does not respond in ten days, you can file a complaint with the Public Records Division. They review the situation and can order the office to release the records. This process costs nothing to use and applies to all Nantucket County agencies.

Note: Written requests tend to get better results than phone calls when seeking Nantucket County booking reports, since they create a paper trail.

Sealing Arrest Records in Nantucket County

People arrested in Nantucket County can sometimes get their records sealed. M.G.L. c. 276 §§ 100A-100U sets the rules. If the case ended in a dismissal or not guilty verdict, you can ask to seal it right away. For convictions, there is a waiting period. Misdemeanors take three years. Felonies take seven years after the sentence is done.

Sealing a record in Nantucket County means the booking report will not show up in most public searches. It stays in the system, but access is limited. Law enforcement can still see sealed records. Most employers and landlords cannot. You file the sealing request with Nantucket District Court if that is where your case was heard. The court reviews it and makes a decision. The Reporters Committee Open Government Guide has more on how sealing affects public records access in Massachusetts.

Expungement is a separate process and much harder to get. It removes the record entirely. Few people qualify for it. Sealing is far more common in Nantucket County and covers most situations.

Nantucket County Court and Booking Records

Nantucket District Court handles most criminal cases on the island. After someone is booked in Nantucket County, the case goes to this court for arraignment. The court record shows the charges, plea, and what the judge decided about bail. These records are separate from the booking report but they connect to the same arrest.

More serious cases go to Nantucket County Superior Court. This court handles felonies and appeals. Both courts are on the island. Their records are public unless a judge has sealed them. If you want the full picture of an arrest in Nantucket County, request both the booking report from the police or sheriff and the court records from the relevant court.

The Massachusetts State Police also have a presence on Nantucket at times. If a state trooper made the arrest, the booking report sits with the state police, not the local department. This matters when you are trying to track down a specific record in Nantucket County.

Nantucket County Booking Data and DCJIS

The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services sets the rules for how booking data gets recorded in Massachusetts. Every booking report created in Nantucket County follows DCJIS standards. The agency maintains the statewide criminal history database that pulls from local booking reports and court records. This database is the backbone of the CORI system.

DCJIS does not take public records requests directly. For Nantucket County booking reports, you still go through the local sheriff or police. But the standards DCJIS sets determine what fields appear on a booking report and how long data stays in the system. Their website has guides that explain how criminal records work in Massachusetts and what your rights are when it comes to accessing them.

Towns in Nantucket County

Nantucket County has just one town: Nantucket. The town and the county share the same borders. This means there is only one local police department and one sheriff's office for the entire county. All booking reports in Nantucket County come from one of these two agencies. No cities in Nantucket County meet the population threshold for a separate page on this site.

Nearby Counties

Nantucket County is an island, so "nearby" means the closest counties by water. If you need booking reports from outside Nantucket County, these are your closest options on the mainland and nearby islands.