Morehouse Parish Police Blotter Records

The Morehouse Parish police blotter documents incident reports, arrest logs, and other public safety records kept by the Morehouse Parish Sheriff's Office in Bastrop. This page covers how to request those records, what fees to expect, and where to turn when you need more than the local office provides.

Morehouse Parish Sheriff's Office

The Morehouse Parish Sheriff's Office, led by Sheriff Mike Tubbs, serves as the primary law enforcement agency for the parish. The main office is located at 351 South Franklin Street in Bastrop. The office handles patrol, civil process, and detention for the parish. A separate Detention Center operates at 6444 Patey Road, Collinston, LA, and can be reached at 318-874-7855. The Morehouse Parish Jail in Bastrop is at 250 East Walnut and reached at 318-281-9336.

Public records requests for Morehouse Parish are routed through the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office rather than the Sheriff's Office directly. The LSP forms page at lsp.org/forms lists state-level request forms that can supplement parish-level requests when records span multiple agencies or require state-level data.

Louisiana State Police forms help when a parish-level request in Morehouse needs to be paired with a state criminal history check or crash report from LSP's statewide databases.

Under La. R.S. § 44:31, any adult in Louisiana may inspect or copy public records held by a government agency. The three-business-day response rule under La. R.S. § 44:32 applies to all public agencies, including the District Attorney's Office handling Morehouse records. Records tied to active criminal investigations may be temporarily withheld under La. R.S. § 44:3.

How Public Records Requests Work in Morehouse Parish

In Morehouse Parish, public records requests are handled by the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office. This is the same DA's Office that serves Ouachita and Morehouse parishes. Their address is 400 St. John Street, Monroe, LA 71201. You can email them at info@4thda.org or call 318-388-4720. Routing requests through the DA's Office is the standard practice here, so do not expect to walk into the Sheriff's Office and pick up records the same day.

When you contact the DA's Office, give them as much detail as possible. State the type of record, the date range, any case number, and the names of the people involved. The more specific your request, the faster the office can locate and produce the record. Vague requests for "all records" on a person will likely be returned with a call for clarification before any documents are provided.

Fee schedule for Morehouse Parish records: paper copies cost $1.00 per page per side. If you want records sent by email as an attachment, there is a flat fee of $10.00 per email. Records provided on CD, DVD, or USB drive cost $25.00 per device. If records need to go onto an external hard drive, the fee is the actual cost of the device. These fees apply once the DA's Office has reviewed your request and determined what records are releasable.

Note: Payment is due before records are released. Ask the DA's Office what payment methods they accept before submitting your request so you can be ready to pay promptly once the records are approved.

Types of Records Available

The Morehouse Parish police blotter is part of a broader set of records available through the 4th Judicial District system. Arrest records, booking logs, incident reports, and calls-for-service summaries are all covered under Louisiana's public records law. Under La. R.S. § 44:1, these documents qualify as public records because they are made and kept by a public body in connection with public business.

Arrest records show the date of booking, the charges filed, and the bond status. Incident reports give a narrative account of what happened, including the location, time, parties involved, and the responding deputy's observations. Traffic crash reports are handled separately and may be requested through Louisiana State Police if the crash involved a state trooper or occurred on a state highway. Under La. R.S. § 32:398, crash reports are available to involved parties once the investigation wraps up.

Court records for Morehouse Parish cases are kept by the Clerk of Court and handled through a different process than Sheriff's records. If you need court filings, judgments, or case dispositions, contact the Morehouse Parish Clerk of Court in Bastrop rather than the Sheriff's Office or the DA's Office. The two record sets are separate, even when they relate to the same underlying case.

State Resources for Additional Records

Louisiana State Police fills in gaps that parish-level records do not cover. Criminal history background checks covering all parishes are available through LSP's background check service at lsp.org/services/background-checks. This is useful when you need a statewide view rather than just Morehouse Parish records. The check pulls from statewide databases and includes arrests and convictions across all 64 parishes.

The LSP forms page at lsp.org/forms also lists forms for traffic crash records, which are available under La. R.S. § 32:398 once a crash report is complete. If the crash in question involved LSP troopers in Morehouse Parish, you request the report from LSP rather than from the local Sheriff's Office or DA's Office.

The Louisiana State Archives at lsa.org provides guidance on exercising your public records rights. If a request to the 4th Judicial DA's Office is denied, the Archives can point you to the appropriate process for challenging that denial. You also have the option of filing suit in district court under Louisiana's public records law if you believe a denial was improper.

Nearby Parishes

Morehouse Parish is in northeast Louisiana and shares borders with several other parishes, each with its own law enforcement and records offices.