Sheriff Public Records

Records are made available to the public in accordance with the Public Records Act (RCW 42.56). Requests for Sheriffs Public Records can be submitted via mail (PDF), in person, online, email, or fax (425-388-3939).

Traffic Collision Reports To better serve our citizens and their insurance carriers in need of a traffic collision report, we have partnered with LexisNexis for secure electronic dissemination of traffic collision reports.

Request a Traffic Collision Report.

Please allow a minimum of 10 days from the date of the accident before requesting to allow the collision report to be reviewed and approved for release. 

Traffic collision reports contain the basic information of the incident, including information from all involved drivers, passengers, and/or property owners and law enforcement officer narrative(s) and diagram(s). Attachments to traffic collision reports may have been created for some collisions (witness statements, photographs, arrest reports, etc.) and these attachments are not available online. These attachments must be requested through one of the following options:

Requesting Other Sheriff's Office Records

To assist us in locating your documents please provide as much information as possible. Helpful information to provide includes:

  • Case number and type of call (i.e. Burglary)
    • If case number is unknown include:
      • Date and time incident occurred
      • Address where incident occurred; or, if different, address of 911 call
      • Type of call (i.e., Assault, Burglary)
      • Names of parties involved
      • If you are requesting a vehicle report list the license plate
  • Contact information (i.e. name, mailing address, email and/or phone number)

Fees

Cash, check, or money order only. Requestors may visually inspect records in person at the Sheriff’s Office, by appointment, at no cost. Snohomish County waives fees for production of records if the total is less than $1.

Other costs include:

  • Paper copies $0.15 per page, plus postage/mailing
  • Scanned copies $0.10 per page
  • Records uploaded to email, cloud-based storage, CD/DVD or flash drive $0.05 each per every 4 electronic files or attachments
  • Transmission of public records in an electronic format: $0.10 per gigabyte (GB)
  • CDs/DVDs/USB flash drives/External hard drives:  Actual cost plus postage/mailing
  • Other media such as audio and photos: Actual cost plus postage/mailing
  • Customized Service Charge, in accordance with RCW 42.56.120(3) - Data compilations prepared or accessed as a customized service: Actual cost plus postage/mailing.  

Large Requests may require a deposit of up to 10% of the total estimated cost of an entire request before copying records. When a fee is due, you will be mailed a letter notifying you of the cost and that the records are available. The fee must be paid before the records will be released.

Timeline

Within five business days after the receipt of a request the Sheriff’s Office will do one or more of the following:

  • Make requested records available for inspection or copying.
  • Acknowledge the receipt of request and provide a reasonable estimate of when requested records will be available.
  • Seek clarification of unclear requests.
  • Deny the request and cite the legal exemption(s).

Exemptions

Listings of the most common exemptions are found at RCW 42.56.210-510. These exemptions are noninclusive and disclosure of particular information may be required or prohibited by other sources of legal authority. In addition, other Washington laws may prohibit or exempt the disclosure of other classes of information.

The most common redactions (black out) include names of victims, all juveniles / minors, and all suspect unless they have been booked into jail. Redacting is a major reason why it takes time to prepare reports to fill a request.