Queen Anne's County Arrest Records

Queen Anne's County arrest records are maintained by the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office in Centreville and are available through the Maryland Public Information Act. This page covers how to request records from the Sheriff's Office, how to search court cases through the Maryland Judiciary Case Search, and what to expect from each source.

Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office

The Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office is the main law enforcement agency for the county and holds arrest records, incident reports, and other law enforcement documents. The Sheriff's Office is based in Centreville, which is the county seat. Their website at qac.org/sheriff provides contact information, hours, and details about the services they offer to the public.

To request arrest records from the Sheriff's Office, you submit a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request. You can do this by visiting in person in Centreville, or by submitting your request in writing by mail or through any online option the agency makes available. In your request, include the full name of the person the record concerns, the approximate date or date range of the arrest, and any additional details that help narrow the search, such as the nature of the incident or a case number if you have one.

The agency has 10 working days to respond to your request. Their initial response does not have to include the records. It can be an acknowledgment, a request for clarification, a fee estimate, or a partial or full denial. If any part of your request is denied, the agency must tell you which legal provision justifies that denial and explain how to appeal the decision.

Queen Anne's County sits on the Eastern Shore between the Chesapeake Bay and the central Eastern Shore. It borders Kent, Cecil, Caroline, and Talbot counties. The county has about 52,000 residents, making it a mid-size county on the Shore. Most law enforcement activity in the county goes through the Sheriff's Office, though the Maryland State Police also has a presence here.

Maryland Judiciary Case Search: Queen Anne's County Cases

The Maryland Judiciary Case Search is a free statewide database covering all Maryland courts, including those in Queen Anne's County. You can search by name to find criminal case filings, charges, hearing dates, and case outcomes. The tool shows what is in the court system after an arrest leads to charges. It does not show arrests that never resulted in charges, and it does not display expunged or shielded records.

Since December 2021, the system requires exact name matches unless you use the percent sign (%) wildcard at the end of a name. A CAPTCHA appears with each search. To narrow results to Queen Anne's County cases specifically, filter by court location when prompted. If you are unsure of the exact spelling of a name, the wildcard feature helps. Typing "Brown%" returns Brown, Browne, Brownell, and related variations.

Court records show what happened after an arrest. Police records from the Sheriff's Office show what happened at the time of the arrest. You may need both, and they come from different sources.

MPIA Rights and Fees for Queen Anne's Records

The Maryland Public Information Act gives everyone the right to request records from state and local government agencies. In Queen Anne's County, this covers records held by the Sheriff's Office, the court system, and other county offices. The first two hours of staff search time are provided at no cost to the requester. After that, fees are set by the COMAR 29.01.02.13 fee schedule. The agency must give you a written estimate before charging anything beyond the free period, and you can scale back your request to reduce what you owe.

If you are the person the record is about, you have expanded rights as a person in interest. You can access certain records that would otherwise be withheld from third-party requesters, particularly records that relate directly to your own case or identity. This broader access does not override every legal exemption, but it covers many common situations. If the agency denies your request or a portion of it, you can appeal to the agency head and then to the courts if needed.

The Maryland Attorney General's office maintains a detailed MPIA guide at oag.state.md.us/Opengov/pia.htm. It covers rights, exceptions, fees, and the appeals process in full. It is free to access and worth reading before you submit a formal request.

Arrest Records and Court Records: What Is the Difference

An arrest record is created by the Sheriff's Office at the time of booking. It documents the date and time of the arrest, the charges at booking, identifying details of the person taken into custody, and the name of the arresting deputy. A court record is created by the court system and covers everything that happened after the arrest: whether the state's attorney filed charges, what plea was entered, what the court ruled, and what the outcome was.

You may need both. If you want to know what happened from arrest to final court disposition, the Sheriff's Office provides the front-end record and the Maryland Judiciary Case Search or the Circuit Court clerk in Centreville provides the court-side record. Certified copies of court documents carry more official weight than printed Case Search results. You can request certified copies from the clerk of the Circuit Court for Queen Anne's County, also in Centreville.

The image below shows the Maryland Judiciary Case Search portal, which covers all Maryland courts including Queen Anne's County.

The portal lets you filter by court location and name. Start with Queen Anne's County as the court filter to narrow your results.

State Prison and Inmate Records

If a person arrested in Queen Anne's County was later convicted and sentenced to a Maryland state prison, you can check the DPSCS Inmate Locator for their current status. The free tool shows the facility, committing county, sentence details, and projected release dates. It covers state correctional facilities only. It does not include anyone held at the Queen Anne's County Detention Center or anyone who is pretrial and housed locally pending their court date.

Search by name in the DPSCS tool. If the person has been released, they may not appear in the current database. For older cases, the Circuit Court clerk's office or the Sheriff's Office in Centreville is the better resource.

Maryland State Police Records in Queen Anne's County

The Maryland State Police has a barrack covering parts of Queen Anne's County and generates its own arrest records independent of the Sheriff's Office. If an arrest was made by a state trooper, the record will be with MSP, not the Sheriff. You'd need to request those records separately from MSP Central Records at 1711 Belmont Ave, Baltimore, MD 21244. Their phone number is (410) 653-4246 and they are open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The MSP Public Information Request page below shows the process for requesting state police records.

Submit your request in writing and include as much case detail as you have. The same 10-day response rule applies to MSP as to any other state agency.

Expungement in Queen Anne's County

Maryland law allows people to petition for expungement of certain arrests and charges, and some convictions under defined conditions. Once a record is expunged, it is removed from public access. The Judiciary Case Search will not show it. The Sheriff's Office is also required to remove expunged records from their files. A clean result from any search does not prove no arrest ever happened. It may mean the record was expunged years ago.

Maryland also has a shielding process for certain non-violent convictions after a waiting period. Shielded records are not accessible to the public but remain available to law enforcement. Neither expungement nor shielding deletes a record from every government system. They restrict public access. If you want to understand what options apply to a specific case, a Maryland criminal defense attorney can walk through the eligibility rules for each process.

Nearby Maryland Counties

Queen Anne's County borders several other Eastern Shore counties, each with its own Sheriff's Office and records process.