Search Butts County Police Blotter

Police blotter records for Butts County are held by the sheriff's office in Jackson. Butts County sits between Atlanta and Macon along the I-75 corridor, and the sheriff's department handles all law enforcement outside the city of Jackson. You can search for police blotter entries by contacting the Butts County Sheriff's Office directly. The daily blotter covers arrests, incident reports, traffic stops, and calls for service. Georgia's Open Records Act gives you the legal right to access these files, and state databases offer extra records from agencies that operate across Butts County.

Butts County Police Blotter Office

Sheriff Gary Long leads the Butts County Sheriff's Office from Ernest Biles Drive in Jackson. The department patrols the county's roads and communities, runs the detention center, and serves court papers. Every call that comes in gets logged in the police blotter. Every arrest makes a booking record. Warrants served, traffic incidents, and disturbance calls all show up in the Butts County blotter too.

The I-75 corridor brings a lot of traffic through Butts County. That means a fair number of police blotter entries come from highway incidents and stops along that stretch. The Georgia State Patrol also works this area heavily, and their records go through a separate system. But for local incidents, the Butts County Sheriff's Office is your primary source.

Access Butts County Police Blotter

To get police blotter records from Butts County, file an open records request with the sheriff's office. You can do this by phone, mail, or in person. Tell the staff what records you want. Be specific. A date, a name, or a case number speeds up the search. The office handles these requests under the Georgia Open Records Act at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70.

Response time is three business days under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71. That is the legal maximum. Many requests in Butts County get handled faster than that, especially for recent blotter entries. Copies cost up to 10 cents per page. The first quarter hour of search time is free. After that, the office can charge for staff time at the prorated rate of their lowest-paid employee who can do the work.

You do not need to be a Butts County resident. You do not need to give a reason for wanting the police blotter records. The law is the same across all of Georgia.

Note: Jackson has its own city police for incidents inside the city limits of Butts County.

State Records for Butts County

The Georgia State Patrol works I-75 through Butts County every day. Reports from troopers go into the EPORTS system run by the Department of Public Safety. You can search EPORTS for incident reports, crash reports, and citations from the state patrol in Butts County. Incident reports cost $2.00. Crash reports cost $5.00 for an electronic copy. The first citation is free. Reports take three to five business days to appear in the system after the event.

EPORTS only has records from the Georgia State Patrol and other DPS divisions. Local police blotter data from the Butts County Sheriff stays with the sheriff's office. If you need records from both agencies, you will have to make separate requests.

The GBI Records Request Center handles state-level investigative records that may involve Butts County. For offender lookups, the Georgia Department of Corrections search tool is free and covers anyone currently in a state prison from the area.

Butts County Police Blotter and the Law

Georgia's Open Records Act has several sections that affect police blotter access in Butts County. The main statute at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 defines what counts as a public record. The response rules at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71 set the three-day deadline and fee structure. The exemptions at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72 tell you what can be held back.

For police blotter purposes in Butts County, the key exemptions are for active investigations and crash reports. A case that is still being prosecuted may have its investigative file sealed. But the arrest entry and initial incident report are usually still public. Crash reports require a statement of need showing your connection to the accident. Personal details like phone numbers get blacked out on copies of police blotter records.

Criminal history is a separate matter. Under O.C.G.A. § 35-3-34, records beyond Georgia felony convictions need the subject's consent. The GBI handles those requests. Local police blotter entries from Butts County do not require consent since they are public records.

Butts County Law Enforcement Resources

The Georgia Sheriffs' Association directory lists every sheriff in the state. Use it to confirm the current office contact details for Butts County. The association's website also has info about training programs and public safety resources across Georgia.

The directory shown above gives you direct access to contact information for all 159 Georgia sheriff offices, including Butts County. It is a helpful resource if you need to reach multiple agencies for police blotter records that span county lines.

Cities in Butts County

Jackson is the county seat and only incorporated city in Butts County. It has its own police department for calls inside city limits. The sheriff handles all police blotter functions for the rest of the county. Flovilla and Jenkinsburg are small communities in Butts County that fall under the sheriff's patrol area. Indian Springs State Park is also in the county.

Nearby Counties

Butts County sits south of metro Atlanta in central Georgia. These counties share borders and have their own sheriff offices with separate police blotter records.