Hinesville Police Records

Police records in Hinesville are maintained by the Hinesville Police Department, the primary law enforcement agency for this Liberty County city. Hinesville is the county seat and the largest city in the county, with a population of about 36,500. Its location next to Fort Stewart means the area has a significant military population. Incident reports, arrest records, accident reports, and other police records from within city limits are all held by the Hinesville PD. Open records requests follow the same Georgia law that applies statewide, and the process is straightforward once you know the steps.

Hinesville Police Department

The Hinesville Police Department is located on Liberty Street in downtown Hinesville. The department handles patrol, investigations, traffic enforcement, and all other police functions inside the city limits. Their records division manages open records requests for police reports. If a Hinesville officer responded to the incident you are asking about, this is the agency that has the file.

The department is a mid-size agency that serves a city with a large transient military population due to nearby Fort Stewart. This means a fair number of records requests come from people who no longer live in the area. Mail and phone requests are common because of this. The records staff handles these requests regularly and can walk you through the process.

How to Get Hinesville Police Records

The Georgia Open Records Act at O.C.G.A. 50-18-70 gives the public the right to access police records from the Hinesville Police Department. You can make a request in person at the department on Liberty Street, send it by mail, or contact them by phone to ask how they prefer to receive written requests. Some departments accept email requests as well. The key is to put your request in a format that the agency can act on and respond to within the legal timeline.

Under O.C.G.A. 50-18-71, the Hinesville Police Department has three business days to respond. That response can be the records themselves, a cost estimate, or a written denial. The first 15 minutes of search time are free. Copies cost $0.10 per page. If the total will be over $25, they have to give you a heads-up before moving forward. For most single police reports, the cost is minimal since they tend to be just a few pages long.

Include as much detail as you can in your request. The date of the incident, names of people involved, a case number if you have one, and the location all help. The more specific your request, the faster the records staff can find what you need.

Note: If you are requesting a report related to a military service member and the incident happened on Fort Stewart, the Hinesville PD would not have that report. Military police on the installation handle incidents on base, and those records go through a different federal process.

Hinesville Accident Reports

Accident reports from Hinesville are filed by the officer who responds to the crash scene. If a Hinesville police officer handled it, the report is with the Hinesville PD records division. Request it through the open records process. Traffic along US 84, GA 196, and other routes through town keeps Hinesville officers busy with crash responses throughout the year.

Crashes on highways where the Georgia State Patrol responded go through the state's EPORTS system. You can find it at eports.gamccd.net. Each report costs $5 and is sent by email. This covers any incident where a state trooper wrote the report rather than a local officer.

EPORTS handles State Patrol reports only. For crashes where a Hinesville officer or Liberty County deputy responded, contact the local agency directly.

BuyCrash by LexisNexis is another option. Some local agencies upload crash reports to this platform for online access. Check there if you want to try getting a Hinesville crash report without visiting the department in person.

Open Records Law in Hinesville

Georgia's Open Records Act is the legal backbone for all public records requests in Hinesville. The law covers incident reports, arrest records, accident reports, booking records, and most other police files. It applies equally to the Hinesville Police Department, the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, and every other government agency in the state.

Some records are exempt under O.C.G.A. 50-18-72. Active investigation records can be withheld if releasing them would compromise the case. But initial incident reports and initial arrest reports are always public, even during open investigations. This distinction matters because it means you can get the basic facts about an event even before the case closes. The exemption only covers the deeper investigative files, not the initial documentation.

Denials must be in writing and cite a specific statute. If you think a denial is wrong, you can appeal through the Georgia Attorney General's office or pursue the matter in court.

Criminal Records in Hinesville

For criminal history beyond a single police report, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation runs the statewide criminal records database. The GBI's Georgia Crime Information Center holds records from all agencies across the state. A request to the GBI pulls up the full criminal history, not just what happened in Hinesville.

Court records for Hinesville cases go through the Liberty County court system. The Clerk of Superior Court maintains criminal case files with charges, pleas, verdicts, and sentencing. Police records tell you about the incident and the arrest. Court records tell you what happened in the legal system afterward. Both are available under Georgia law.

Note: Federal offenses committed on Fort Stewart are handled in the federal court system, not the Liberty County courts. Those records come from a completely different process.

Liberty County Sheriff and Other Agencies

The Liberty County Sheriff's Office covers areas outside Hinesville city limits. If an incident happened in unincorporated Liberty County, the sheriff's office is the agency with the report. The sheriff also runs the county jail and handles courthouse security. Neighboring agencies include police departments in Flemington and Walthourville, though those are much smaller communities.

The Georgia Sheriffs' Association keeps a directory of all county sheriff's offices in Georgia, including Liberty County. This is a useful resource when you need contact details for sheriff's offices in the Hinesville area.

Liberty County Police Records

Hinesville is the county seat of Liberty County. For incidents outside city limits or county-level records, the Liberty County Sheriff's Office is the agency to contact. Our Liberty County page has more details on the full range of police records available at the county level.

View Liberty County Police Records

Nearby Cities

These cities in the region also have police records available through their local law enforcement agencies.