Forest City Criminal History Checks
No single Forest City database is a complete criminal history. The best route depends on whether the sought record is a police narrative, court case, booking event, or state repository response. Forest City Police is the local report custodian only when that department handled the incident. Pennsylvania State Police keeps its own reports. Filed cases appear in the Unified Judicial System portal, and statewide name-based history requests run through PATCH.
- Identify the arresting or responding agency. Ask Forest City Police only for records it created.
- Request a local incident report with the report number, date, place, and involved party when known.
- Search the Pennsylvania UJS portal under Magisterial District Court and Susquehanna County, then check Common Pleas if charges were held for court.
- For custody, call Susquehanna County Inmate Control and Coordination at 570-278-4600 extension 5946 to learn which receiving jail has the booking record.
- Use Pennsylvania State Police PATCH when an official state repository name check is the actual goal.
This order follows the record from the office that made it to the systems that receive later court and repository updates. It also avoids treating a free docket search as if it were a police report or PATCH response.
Forest City Records at Borough Hall
Forest City's record counter has a vivid local setting. Police work from the second floor of the Borough Building at 535 Main Street, Forest City, PA 18421. A county-library branch occupies the first floor, while council and mayor functions share the building and renovated Pentecost Hall sits on the third. Calling first can confirm which office can handle the requested Forest City record.
The official Forest City borough site provides the borough and police contact point.
The shared civic building helps locate the department, but it does not create one combined library, borough, and police record system.
Records at the Forest City Police Department
Forest City Police holds incident and arrest reports made by its officers. The department can be reached at 570-785-3453 or fcpolice@nep.net. The borough office uses 570-785-3326 and fcboro@nep.net. Official sources do not publish a dedicated police report form, copy fee, arrest log, case portal, or mobile app. A direct request is therefore the practical first step.
Give the requester name and contact details, report or incident number if known, occurrence date and time, exact location, involved party, requested portions, and preferred electronic or paper delivery. Ask whether any fee applies before ordering. If the report is not supplied through the routine channel, use the borough's Pennsylvania Right-to-Know process as the fallback.
Investigative, victim, juvenile, witness, medical, or personal-security information may be withheld or redacted. A precise request for a named record is stronger than a broad demand for all information about a person. Forest City Police also cannot supply a PSP report merely because the event occurred near the borough.
PSP or Forest City Police
Forest City sits where Susquehanna, Lackawanna, and Wayne Counties meet. That location makes the agency name on a citation, complaint, or report especially important. Borough limits, state-road patrol, and nearby county lines can change which office made the record. The correct question is not just where the event happened, but which agency responded.
The Pennsylvania State Police Troop R directory lists the Gibson station at 2856 State Route 848 in New Milford.
The directory gives Forest City searchers a direct official route when PSP, rather than borough police, created the incident record.
A case docket can help settle the question. Public criminal dockets often list the arresting agency, complaint number, and originating Magisterial District Judge case. Use those fields to route the report request instead of sending the same broad request to several offices.
Booking and Arrest Records in Forest City
Forest City has no active local booking facility identified in the official sources. Susquehanna County also closed its former correctional facility effective March 28, 2025. A Forest City arrest may therefore leave separate records with borough police, a Magisterial District Judge, UJS, and a receiving jail in another county. No current Forest City arrest blotter or county booking log was located.
For a very recent event, start with the arresting agency. Then call Susquehanna County Inmate Control and Coordination at extension 5946. That unit identifies the facility that received a Susquehanna County detainee. Search or contact that actual facility for the booking time, custody status, bond, or release information it is permitted to disclose.
The county's old facility pages are historical, not a current lookup destination. Court timing also differs from jail timing. An early MDJ entry may appear before a Common Pleas docket, while a transfer can post in a custody system before the next judicial event.
Forest City Booking Search Fallback
No local booking log does not mean there is no official trail. It means a Forest City search has two parts. First, confirm the arrest through the agency record or an early UJS docket. Second, ask Inmate Control and Coordination where the person was received. The destination facility, not Forest City Borough Hall or the closed Ellsworth Drive jail, is the booking custodian.
If no UJS result appears right away, preserve the spelling, arrest date, agency, and incident number. A very recent preliminary event may not yet be easy to find by name. Call the arresting office for its record, then check UJS again with the proper court type and Susquehanna County. An absent instant result is not proof that no arrest took place.
Once a court file exists, use its OTN and originating docket to connect the arrest with later proceedings. Those identifiers are far more reliable than a same-name match.
Forest City Crime Data Context
Forest City covers .9034 square mile and had 1,780 residents in the 2020 Decennial Census, making it Susquehanna County's largest borough in that official ranking. Small local counts can swing sharply from year to year. A missing agency-year in a crime table means no report was available there; it does not mean zero crime.
The FBI Crime Data Explorer is the official place to retrieve Forest City Police statistics by agency and year.
The source is useful for local context, but its totals are not a list of people, case files, arrests, or open investigations.
No stable official Forest City count for 2024 or 2025 was indexed in the research. Avoid filling that gap with a third-party number. Use the exact agency and year shown in CDE, note any participation gap, and return to police or court sources for an individual record.
The Forest City Municipal Court File
Forest City does not have a separate Pennsylvania municipal court or borough case-search portal. Magisterial District Judges perform the local minor-court role. Their dockets cover preliminary criminal proceedings and may also include summary, traffic, and non-traffic matters. Felonies and misdemeanors held for court move to the Court of Common Pleas of Susquehanna County.
| Court Structure | Magisterial District Court first; Court of Common Pleas for cases held for court |
|---|---|
| Case Types | Preliminary criminal events plus summary, traffic, and non-traffic matters at the MDJ level |
| Lookup Channel | Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania Web Portal, with Susquehanna selected as county |
| Docket Fields | Case number, status, filing date, charges, dispositions, bail, events, attorneys, and sentence information when applicable |
| Copies | Free public docket sheet online; request missing or certified documents from the proper court custodian |
Search both court levels when needed. An MDJ-only query can miss a later CP-58 Common Pleas file. A Common Pleas-only query can miss a summary case or a charge that never advanced.
Forest City State and Federal Cases
The UJS portal replaces a nonexistent Forest City case portal for Pennsylvania matters. Federal charges are different. Susquehanna County lies within the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and federal dockets are searched through the official PACER service. A Forest City name or event should not be searched there unless there is a real reason to think the matter is federal.
PACER adds a federal layer; it does not duplicate Forest City Police reports or Pennsylvania UJS dockets.
Federal custody is also separate. The Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator applies to federal prisoners.
The BOP tool should not be used to locate a person booked after a local Forest City arrest at a county receiving facility.
How Forest City Records Reach the County
A local arrest begins with the agency report. A preliminary case then moves through a Magisterial District Judge. If charges are held for court, the District Attorney files the Common Pleas charging document and the Clerk of Courts maintains the CP-58 file. Reportable arrest identifiers and final dispositions flow to the Pennsylvania State Police Central Repository.
Record flow: Forest City Police › Magisterial District Court › Susquehanna County Courts › Pennsylvania State Police Central Repository
The Susquehanna County District Attorney's Office is one part of that filed-charge path.
The prosecutor's role explains why filed Common Pleas charges can differ from the initial allegations in a Forest City police report. Each source answers a distinct question. Police describes its event, UJS shows the case and outcome, and PATCH reports the PSP repository match. Updates can lag, so compare dates and use the originating office to correct source data.
Forest City Records and Local History
Forest City began as Forest Mills after William Pentecost established a lumber mill in 1864. Coal and the Delaware and Hudson rail spur shaped later growth. The borough now uses the motto "A Mile of Hospitality" and sits about 23 miles northeast of Scranton on Route 171. Those facts are more than color when older records are involved.
Historic references may use Forest Mills, describe a location by a former industry or rail feature, or sit in a county archive rather than a current police system. Modern criminal records, however, should be requested from today's actual custodian. The old place name does not change a modern UJS county filter or make the borough the owner of a state police record.
For genealogy or local history work, identify the era before choosing an office. A current incident request and a nineteenth-century borough inquiry are not the same search. Clear dates, names, and record types keep the request within the correct Forest City collection.
Forest City Record Access Rules
Pennsylvania law treats police reports, court dockets, and repository histories differently. Start with the office that created the record. Forest City Police can review a request for its own report. UJS and the courts apply judicial public-access policy to case records. PSP applies the Criminal History Record Information Act to repository information. The Right-to-Know Law does not force an office to create a new list, answer questions, or reveal protected investigative details.
Key Pennsylvania rules:
Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law presumes access to agency records while preserving exemptions and special treatment for investigative material.
Criminal History Record Information Act governs collection, release, completeness, personal review, challenge, and expungement of criminal-history data.
UJS Case Records Public Access Policy governs court case access and protects confidential identifiers and records.
A Forest City request should name the incident, date range, location, and exact document sought. Active investigations and information about victims, juveniles, witnesses, health, or personal security may be redacted. Sealed and expunged matters are not ordinary public results. If an official record about you is wrong, begin with the agency or court that created the disputed fact.