Checking Criminal History in Forks
Use the Forks source that matches the record. Police and Corrections holds the city report and city booking material. District Court II holds most misdemeanor, gross-misdemeanor, and infraction cases. The County Clerk in Port Angeles holds Superior Court felony files. WATCH supplies a limited statewide public history rather than any one local file.
Follow this five-step Forks route:
- Ask Forks Police/Corrections for the incident or arrest report, giving a date, place, report or booking number, and desired fields.
- Search the separate Forks inmate roster for a city booking.
- Contact District Court II for a limited-jurisdiction filing and its current disposition.
- Use Washington Courts Case Search and the County Clerk when the matter is a Superior Court felony.
- Use WSP WATCH for the statutory statewide public product after checking the local event sources.
An empty roster does not prove no arrest occurred. Release, transfer, another arresting agency, or a lag between systems may explain the result.
Forks West End Record Geography
Forks is Clallam County's third and westernmost incorporated city, near Olympic National Park, Pacific beaches, and the Hoh rainforest. Its distance from the Port Angeles courthouse helped produce a distinct justice route. Police, city corrections, and city records are at 500 East Division Street. District Court II is next door at 502 East Division Street.
The official Forks city-government page supplies local civic context for the image below.
Forks incorporated in 1945 with a population of 563 and became a Washington code city in 1984. No current population is stated here because the research did not verify a publishable current official figure. The city's legal status and remote setting, not an invented estimate, explain why West End records follow their own local path.
Forks Police Department Records
Forks Police/Corrections holds reports created by Forks officers and booking records created by the city facility. Requests should name the department, incident date, location, report or booking number when known, and the exact report or fields desired. The official research did not locate a stable city online form or current copy-fee schedule, so contact the records desk and confirm the current submission and payment method.
The Forks Police and Corrections page identifies the department and its services shown here.
Forks Police/Corrections is at 500 East Division Street, Forks, WA 98331, and its listed phone is 360-374-2223. An event outside city limits may belong to the Clallam County Sheriff, a tribal agency, National Park Service, Washington State Patrol, or another authority.
Forks City Jail Record System
The Forks jail roster is a city system. It must be searched apart from the Clallam County inmate inquiry. The roster can show a name, booking information, charge or custody fields, and a city-facility event. It does not serve as the court docket and should not be treated as one.
The official Forks roster displays the city's booking interface and disclaimer pictured below.
The city's own warning says the roster provides booking information, not a court cause, case, or criminal filing. Search District Court II or Superior Court to learn whether a prosecutor filed a charge and how the case ended. Do not infer guilt from a booking entry.
Forks Arrests and Bookings
A Forks arrest can remain in the Forks correctional facility rather than moving at once to the county jail in Port Angeles. Forks Police writes the agency report. City corrections records intake, custody, initial charge data, and release or transfer information. The prosecutor and court later create the filed case, which may use different charges.
If the Forks roster has no entry, call Police/Corrections at 360-374-2223. Also check whether the Sheriff or another agency made the arrest and whether the person entered the county facility. For current county custody, use the Clallam inmate inquiry or call jail business at 360-417-2458. For state imprisonment after sentence, use the Washington DOC locator.
Note: Forks booking data records custody activity; a court disposition is the source for conviction, dismissal, acquittal, or other outcome.
Read Forks Booking Records Correctly
Roster fields describe the intake stage. A name identifies the listed person, while booking details tie that person to a custody event. Charge fields reflect initial jail data. Those entries can change after prosecutor review, and a court may never receive the same charge wording.
| Roster control | Browse or search the current city-jail list |
|---|---|
| Name | Displayed or searchable identity field; confirm before relying on a common-name result |
| Booking information | Event details tied to the Forks facility |
| Charge or custody fields | Initial jail data that must be checked against District Court II |
| Disclaimer | Booking information is not a court cause, case, or criminal filing |
Use the booking number, date, and arresting agency to connect the roster entry to the police report and court docket. Do not republish private identities or turn the official roster into an arrest gallery.
Municipal Court Records in Forks
Forks has no separate municipal court. Most city misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, and infractions route to Clallam County District Court II at 502 East Division Street. Adult felonies route to Superior Court in Port Angeles. A Forks court search must therefore choose between District Court II and Superior Court based on the filed case.
| Court Name | Clallam County District Court II; Superior Court for felonies |
|---|---|
| Case Types Heard | District II hears West End misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, and infractions; Superior Court hears adult felonies |
| Case Lookup Channel | Washington Courts Case Search, District Court II clerk, or Odyssey for Superior Court information |
| What the Docket Shows | Filed charges, hearings, pleas, orders, outcome, and sentence events when public |
| Copies & Fees | Confirm current copy terms with the court holding the file |
District Court II can be reached at 360-374-6383. For felony documents, contact the County Clerk at 360-417-2231 or Web_Clerk@ClallamCountyWA.gov.
Forks District Court II Records
District Court II is central to the West End record trail. Its location beside Forks Police and Corrections does not merge the files. The police office holds the investigation. The jail holds booking data. The court holds the complaint, docket, hearing events, pleas, orders, and disposition.
The official Forks correctional-facility page lists District Court II contacts shown below.
If the roster shows no court case, allow for filing time and confirm the case with the District Court II clerk. The prosecutor can change, decline, or amend an initial allegation. A felony will instead appear in Superior Court, where Odyssey shows public case information but anonymous users cannot download documents.
Where Forks Records Go
A local event begins with a Forks Police report and may create a Forks jail entry. Most limited-jurisdiction charges proceed through District Court II. A felony proceeds through Clallam Superior Court. Courts and agencies report qualifying arrest and disposition data to Washington State Patrol under the criminal-records privacy law.
Record flow: Forks Police Department › Clallam County Courts › Washington State Patrol
WATCH is a public repository product, not the Forks report or full court file. It contains conviction information, specified recent pending-disposition arrests, and registration information within statutory limits. A searcher still needs the city report for the investigation and the court file for the filed charge and result.
Forks Custody Reporting Is Separate
The Forks facility publishes a Prison Rape Elimination Act reporting route for sexual-abuse allegations in custody. The hotline is 360-374-2679, and the email is PREA.forks@forkswashington.org. Those contacts serve safety reporting. They are not the general inbox for police reports, roster questions, or court-copy requests.
Send ordinary Forks records questions to Police/Corrections at 360-374-2223. Send a court-file question to District Court II or the Superior Court Clerk. Keeping these channels separate helps urgent custody-safety information reach the right staff while a public-record request follows the city's normal review, redaction, and production process.
Medical, protective-custody, and security-classification details are not ordinary public roster fields. The public booking view is meant to identify custody activity, not expose the internal safety file. A person seeking their own restricted material, or acting with lawful authorization, should ask Forks staff what proof and request channel apply. A public searcher should stay with the roster's published fields and the public court record. This boundary protects people in custody while preserving access to the booking facts and judicial events that law makes public.
Public Access Rules in Forks
Forks agency records fall under the Washington Public Records Act, subject to exemptions. Court records follow General Rule 31. A request should identify an existing record by date, place, number, subject, and custodian. Protected victim, minor, medical, financial, and active-investigation details may be redacted when the law supports it.
Key Statutes:
Washington Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW governs access to identifiable Forks agency records.
Washington State Criminal Records Privacy Act, chapter 10.97 RCW governs criminal-history dissemination and correction rights.
General Rule 31 governs public access to District Court II and Superior Court records.
The research found no stable Forks request-form field set or posted copy fees. Confirm both with the city desk rather than borrowing county or Sequim terms.
Forks Jail and State Prison Records
Forks Jail is not Clallam Bay Corrections Center. The city jail handles local detention and has the Forks roster. Clallam Bay is a Washington Department of Corrections prison at 1830 Eagle Crest Way, with a capacity of 858, opened in 1985, and holding medium, close, and maximum custody levels.
Use the Forks roster for city custody. Use the Clallam County inquiry for the county jail. Use the Washington DOC Incarcerated Individual Search after transfer to state custody. Confusing the city jail with the state prison leads to the wrong roster, the wrong phone call, and the wrong public-record request. The Clallam County arrest lookup compares the county-wide custody routes.
A transfer changes the best current-custody source, but it does not move every older record. Forks Police retains the city report. The Forks facility retains its booking material. District Court II or Superior Court retains the judicial case, and DOC maintains the state custody record. Searchers tracing an older event should preserve the booking number and court case number so each office can identify its own part of the chain.
The same rule applies when an arrest happened beyond Forks city limits. Start with the agency named in the report or booking entry. Sheriff's records belong to Clallam County, state-highway investigations may belong to WSP, and incidents on tribal or federal land may involve a separate sovereign custodian. Forks Police cannot release another agency's report merely because the event occurred near the city.
Older court records can also be absent from a current web view. Washington Courts Case Search helps locate a court and number, but the official file remains with that court. Call District Court II for West End limited-jurisdiction matters. For a felony, use Odyssey to identify the Superior Court case and order the document from the County Clerk. A disposed label alone does not establish conviction because dismissal, acquittal, and other closures also dispose of cases.