Catawissa Criminal History Checks
Catawissa has no borough criminal-record database, arrest blotter, warrant search, jail roster, report portal, or police app. The practical starting points are the Catawissa Borough Police station and the statewide UJS public docket search. A police request concerns a report created by borough officers. UJS shows filed court charges and case events. Current custody belongs to Columbia County Prison Records and PA SAVIN, not a borough jail.
- Identify whether Catawissa Borough Police or another agency created the incident record.
- Call the station and submit a specific report request with the date, place, incident number, and exact record sought.
- Search UJS Magisterial District Court records for Columbia County and District 26-3-03.
- Follow a case held for court into the Columbia County Common Pleas docket, using its OTN or CP-19-CR number.
- Check Columbia County Prison Records or PA SAVIN for custody, and use PSP products when a Pennsylvania repository record is needed.
Each step answers a narrower question. A police narrative is not a court outcome, and a booking status is not proof of guilt.
Catawissa's Small-Borough Record Chain
Catawissa is Columbia County's third-largest incorporated place, with 1,539 residents in the 2020 Census. The borough dates its establishment to 1774 and still maintains its own police department. That local identity does not produce a self-contained criminal-record system. Police records begin in the borough, judicial records begin at District 26-3-03, major cases move to Bloomsburg, and fingerprint-supported data flow to Pennsylvania State Police.
The official Census profile for Catawissa provides the population context:
Annual crime totals can swing sharply in a place this size. Any comparison should name the reporting agency and year, use PSP Crime in Pennsylvania or FBI Crime Data Explorer figures, and never turn a small-number percentage into a claim about one person.
Records at the Catawissa Police Department
Catawissa Borough Police operates at 118 North Third Street, Catawissa, PA 17820. The station number is 570-356-7102. Chief Joshua J. Laidacker is named on the official borough materials. Borough police hold the incident and arrest reports created by their officers, which can include the incident number, event date and place, narrative, officer action, alleged offense, property, and evidence details.
No online request portal was found. Use the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records standard form and address a focused request to the borough or department. State the date, exact location, incident number, people involved, the precise report component, preferred medium, and requester contact information. Active investigations, juveniles, victims, witnesses, criminal intelligence, and private information can be withheld or redacted.
Catawissa Borough Police
118 North Third Street
Catawissa, PA 17820
570-356-7102
Call before visiting
Catawissa Station or County Dispatch?
Use the police station line for records questions, property appointments, and other business with the department. The official borough page directs nonemergency dispatch calls to Columbia County EMA at 570-784-6300. Emergencies go to 911. Dispatch is not a public-record portal and should not be asked to conduct a criminal-history search.
| Need | Correct Catawissa channel |
|---|---|
| Police report or property appointment | Station, 570-356-7102 |
| Nonemergency officer dispatch | Columbia County EMA, 570-784-6300 |
| Immediate danger | 911 |
| Filed criminal docket | UJS or District 26-3-03 |
Giving the station an incident number can save time because it connects the request to the file the officer created.
Booking and Arrest Records in Catawissa
Catawissa does not run a county-scale detention facility. After an arrest, authorized custody and booking move to Columbia County Prison at 721 Iron Street in Bloomsburg when county admission is required. Prison Records at 570-389-5718 can address current or recent county custody, while PA SAVIN supports name searches and release, transfer, or escape alerts.
The borough police report remains with Catawissa even when booking occurs elsewhere. The preliminary complaint, bail, and hearing events appear through District 26-3-03. A missing PA DOC locator result does not rule out local custody because that locator is for state-sentenced people and parolees, not Columbia County jail detainees.
Recent files may not appear in all systems at once. Call Prison Records, search PA SAVIN, retry UJS with fewer fields, and ask Catawissa Police for the incident record. For more county-wide booking detail, use the contextual Columbia County Arrest Search.
Catawissa's 24-Hour Property Rule
Catawissa Police publishes a distinct rule for property held during an investigation. Release depends on case status and requires an appointment with the Chief or a designee arranged 24 hours in advance. The person collecting the property must show photo identification. Police release it to the actual owner unless prior arrangements or the owner's written authorization permit another person to retrieve it.
Officers do not hold or transfer property to settle a civil dispute. If an item is still evidence, call with the incident number and ask whether the case status permits release. Do not arrive without an appointment or assume a public-record request forces evidence to be returned. Record access and physical property release are separate processes.
Note: Written owner authorization and photo identification do not override an investigative hold or a court order affecting Catawissa property.
The Catawissa Municipal Court File
Pennsylvania does not use a Texas-style municipal criminal court here. Catawissa's local judicial office is Magisterial District Court 26-3-03 at 400 Fisher Avenue, Catawissa, PA 17820. The office phone is 570-356-2309 and fax is 570-356-2019. It handles the preliminary level of criminal cases along with summary and traffic matters in its jurisdiction.
| Court name | Magisterial District Court 26-3-03. |
|---|---|
| Case types | Criminal complaints and preliminary events, summary cases, and traffic matters. |
| Lookup channel | Free UJS Public Web Docket Sheets, with no account required, or the court office. |
| Docket contents | Complaint, charges, OTN, incident number, bail, events, and whether charges were held for court. |
| Copies and fees | Ask the court for the current copy method and charge; no Catawissa-specific amount is published in the research. |
Use the district number as a filter, not as proof that every borough event belongs there. Court jurisdiction and the arresting agency must still be confirmed.
No Catawissa Criminal Database
The absence of a borough portal does not mean the records are unavailable. Search the UJS Public Web Docket Sheets by participant name, choose Columbia County, and select Magisterial District Court. Add 26-3-03 when it helps. Start with first and last name rather than filling every box because UJS warns that a date of birth is not systematically recorded for each participant and can hide a valid result.
A known OTN, police incident or complaint number, SID, or docket number can be more precise. Results can expose docket sheets and calendar data. If no Catawissa case appears, check spelling, aliases, both MDJ and Common Pleas court levels, and filing lag. Juvenile, sealed, expunged, limited-access, and destroyed files are excluded from the public view.
How Catawissa Records Reach the County
Catawissa Police creates the incident and arrest narrative. A fingerprintable arrest receives identifiers such as an OTN, and the complaint starts before the Magisterial District Judge. If charges are held for court, the prosecution moves to the Columbia County Court of Common Pleas in Bloomsburg, where the docket format begins CP-19-CR. Courts and agencies then report disposition data to the PSP Central Repository.
Record flow: Catawissa Borough Police › District 26-3-03 › Columbia County Courts › Pennsylvania State Police Central Repository
The flow explains why one allegation may look different across sources. The police report records initial facts, booking records show admission, the docket shows amended charges and outcomes, and PSP organizes a state record around identity and reported arrest cycles.
Read Catawissa Docket Identifiers
Shared identifiers help trace a Catawissa event without confusing people who have similar names. They also show which stage of the system produced a record.
- 26-3-03
- The local Magisterial District Court number used for Catawissa-area preliminary, summary, and traffic dockets.
- CP-19-CR
- The opening format for a Columbia County Common Pleas criminal docket; 19 is the county code.
- OTN
- The Offense Tracking Number linking an arrest and complaint across justice systems.
- Disposition
- The court outcome for a charge, such as guilty, dismissed, acquitted, or nolle prosequi.
A docket's initial charge may not match its final disposition. Read the charge rows, event history, and outcome together before interpreting the record.
Catawissa Record Access Rules
Catawissa police records and court dockets follow different access systems. The Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law governs requests for existing borough records unless an exemption applies. Judicial case access follows statewide court policy rather than a general borough RTKL request. PSP criminal-history dissemination has its own statutory limits, including restrictions on qualifying nonconviction and limited-access material.
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records forms page provides the standard request form and appeal materials:
Use the form to seek an identified existing record, not to ask the borough to research a person or create a new report.
Key Pennsylvania access laws:
Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law presumes access to many existing local records, subject to exemptions and a five-business-day response framework.
18 Pa.C.S. ยง 9121 controls PSP dissemination and restricts specified nonconviction and limited-access information.
UJS Case Records Public Access Policy governs public electronic court records and differs from a borough RTKL request.
Catawissa's Three-Stop Record Check
When records do not line up, return to the three core custodians. Ask Catawissa Police for its exact incident component. Search District 26-3-03 and CP-19-CR dockets for the filed case. Call Columbia County Prison Records only for custody or booking facts. These stops should be joined with the incident number and OTN where possible.
For one's own fuller Pennsylvania repository history, PSP's mail-only Access and Review process includes convictions and nonconvictions and is better suited to correction work than an ordinary public PATCH response. If a public UJS entry is wrong, submit the correction request to the court where the case was filed. If the police denies access because an investigation is active, read the written basis and use the stated appeal process rather than broadening the request.