Search Cambria County Police Records
Cambria County is located in west-central Pennsylvania with a population of approximately 130,000 residents. The county seat is Ebensburg, and the county's largest city is Johnstown. Police records in Cambria County are maintained by multiple agencies including the Cambria County Sheriff's Office, the Clerk of Courts, the county's open records office, and the Pennsylvania State Police barracks serving the region. These records include criminal case files, arrest documents, warrant information, incident reports, protection from abuse orders, and other public safety records created in the course of law enforcement operations across the county. This page explains where to find these records, which laws govern their release, and how to submit effective requests.
Cambria County Quick Facts
Cambria County Police Records Overview
Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law, 65 P.S. §§ 67.101-67.3104, provides a legal framework for public access to government records across the state. In Cambria County, this law applies to all county agencies, including the Sheriff's Office, the Clerk of Courts, and the county government's administrative offices. It also applies to municipal police departments operating within the county's many boroughs and townships. Under the law, any person may request public records without providing a justification, and agencies must respond within five business days.
Criminal history records are subject to a second layer of regulation under the Criminal History Record Information Act (CHRIA), 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 9101-9183. CHRIA governs how arrest records, conviction data, and related criminal history information may be accessed, used, and disseminated. Records of arrests that did not lead to conviction are generally not publicly accessible under CHRIA, protecting individuals from having non-conviction records follow them indefinitely. Records that have been expunged by court order are removed from public access entirely.
Cambria County's official website is at cambriacountypa.gov, which provides contact information for all county agencies including those handling police and court records. The image below is from the Cambria County official website, showing the county's main online portal for accessing government services and records.
Using the official county website as a starting point helps you identify the correct office for your records request and find current contact information, hours of operation, and any online forms available for records requests.
Cambria County Sheriff's Office
The Cambria County Sheriff is Donald Robertson. The Sheriff's Office is located at 200 South Center Street, Ebensburg, PA 15931. The office phone number is (814) 472-1691. The official website for the Cambria County Sheriff's Office is at cambriacountypa.gov/sheriff-elected/.
The Sheriff's Office handles a wide range of law enforcement and civil functions at the county level. Courthouse security for the Cambria County Courthouse in Ebensburg is provided by Sheriff's deputies, who control access, oversee prisoner movement within the facility, and respond to security incidents inside the building. Warrant service is a core function of the office, with deputies responsible for serving active arrest warrants issued by Cambria County courts throughout the county.
Protection from abuse (PFA) orders are served and enforced by the Sheriff's Office. When a Cambria County court issues a PFA order, deputies are responsible for serving the order on the named respondent and documenting service. Records of PFA service are maintained by the office. Real estate notices and sheriff's sales, which arise from mortgage foreclosures and judgment collections, are also administered through the Sheriff's Office. Records of sheriff's sales, including notices, bids, and deed transfers, are public records available through the office.
Prisoner transports between the county jail and court facilities, as well as transports to state correctional institutions following sentencing, are coordinated by the Sheriff's Office. Gun permits, known as Licenses to Carry Firearms, are processed through the Sheriff's Office under Pennsylvania's firearms licensing statutes. The image below is from the Cambria County Sheriff's official website, which provides current information on all Sheriff's Office services and records.
Residents seeking records from the Sheriff's Office may submit Right-to-Know requests in writing to the office at the South Center Street address. The office processes requests under Pennsylvania's standard five-business-day timeline. Copy fees are $0.25 per page for standard paper reproductions.
Clerk of Courts Criminal Records
Max R. Pavlovich serves as the Cambria County Clerk of Courts. The office is located at 200 South Center Street, Ebensburg, PA 15931, and can be reached at (814) 472-1540. The Clerk of Courts website is at cambriacountypa.gov/clerk-of-courts-elected/. The Clerk of Courts is the primary custodian of adult criminal court records for all cases processed through the Cambria County Court of Common Pleas.
Criminal court records at the Clerk of Courts include criminal complaint documents, magisterial district judge docket information forwarded to the Common Pleas Court, bail orders, arraignment records, preliminary hearing transcripts, plea agreements, trial records and orders, sentencing documents, and post-sentence filings including motions for reconsideration and notices of appeal. Each case file is indexed by defendant name and docket number and represents the complete official record of the criminal proceeding.
The image below is from the Cambria County Clerk of Courts official page, which provides guidance on accessing criminal court records and related services.
Copy fees at the Clerk of Courts are $0.25 per page for standard photocopies. Certified copies, which may be required for employment, licensing, immigration, or legal proceedings elsewhere, carry an additional certification fee. Contact the Clerk's office at (814) 472-1540 to confirm current certified copy fees before submitting your request.
Online access to Cambria County criminal court dockets is available through the free Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System (UJS) Portal. The UJS Portal supports name and docket number searches and returns publicly available case data for cases in the Cambria County Court of Common Pleas, covering criminal, civil, and traffic matters. Expunged records and records sealed under the Clean Slate Law are not accessible through the portal. The portal is updated regularly and provides a convenient starting point for research before making a formal in-person request at the Clerk's office.
Records governed by CHRIA, 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 9101-9183, are subject to restrictions on public access even when held by the Clerk of Courts. Non-conviction records, records of dismissed charges, and expunged case files are not available through the public records system. When a case file contains both public and restricted information, the Clerk's office will provide access to the public portions while withholding restricted materials consistent with the statute.
Cambria County Right-to-Know Requests
Cambria County's designated Right-to-Know officer is Melissa Kestermont. The RTK officer is located at 200 South Center Street, Ebensburg, PA 15931. The phone number is (814) 472-1607, and she can be reached by email at mkestermont@co.cambria.pa.us. Information about submitting Right-to-Know requests, including any available forms and guidance documents, is posted at cambriacountypa.gov/resources/open-records/.
The image below is from the Cambria County open records page, which provides the forms, instructions, and contact information needed to submit a formal RTK request to county government agencies.
For records held by Cambria County agencies, your written request should be directed to Melissa Kestermont at the address or email listed above. Identify the records you seek with specificity, including the type of record, the relevant date range, names of parties involved, and any case or incident numbers you already have. Clear, specific requests are processed more efficiently and produce more complete results than vague or overly broad submissions.
Under the Right-to-Know Law, the five-business-day response clock starts when the RTK officer receives your request. If additional time is needed, the office may issue a 30-day extension notice before the initial period expires. A denial must come in writing and must cite the specific statutory exemption justifying each withheld record. You have 15 business days from the date of denial to appeal to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records at 333 Market Street, 16th Floor, Harrisburg, PA, phone 717-346-9903, or online at openrecords.pa.gov.
The Cambria County Record Storage facility, located at 1150 Wilmore Road, Ebensburg, PA 15931, maintains older county records. This facility is open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on weekdays and provides access to archived records that may not be available at the main county government offices. Requesters looking for older records from past decades may need to contact the record storage facility specifically to arrange access.
Copy fees across Cambria County agencies are set at $0.25 per page for standard paper reproductions. For requests involving digital records, ask whether electronic delivery is available, which may reduce or eliminate copying costs. Prepayment of estimated fees may be required for large requests. Always confirm the fee estimate before the agency begins processing to avoid unexpected charges.
Pennsylvania State Police in Cambria County
The Pennsylvania State Police serve significant portions of Cambria County, primarily through the PSP Ebensburg Barracks. PSP troopers patrol rural townships, smaller communities without their own police departments, and areas where the volume of calls requires supplementary state law enforcement presence. The Ebensburg Barracks handles calls for service in the unincorporated and rural sections of Cambria County, as well as providing assistance to municipal departments in major incidents.
PSP incident reports generated at the Ebensburg Barracks are state agency records and must be requested through the Pennsylvania State Police records request system rather than through county government. Submit requests via the PSP Records Request portal. Right-to-Know requests directed to PSP can be submitted through the PSP RTK request page. The same five-business-day response timeline applies to PSP as a state agency.
Vehicle crash reports from PSP-investigated accidents in Cambria County are available for $22 per report through the PSP crash report request page. These reports are commonly needed for insurance claims, personal injury actions, and workers' compensation proceedings. Requesters need the crash date, location, and names of the parties involved to locate the correct report.
Johnstown, Cambria County's largest city, has its own police department that handles calls within the city limits independently of PSP. Incident reports and arrest records originating from Johnstown Police Department operations must be requested directly from that department. Similarly, other municipalities in Cambria County with their own police departments maintain their own records independently. When determining where to direct a records request, confirm first which agency investigated or responded to the incident in question.
Annual crime statistics for Cambria County municipalities are reported to the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting system and published by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office at the UCR Statistics portal. These aggregate annual statistics provide context for understanding crime trends across the county but do not contain individual incident details.
PATCH Background Checks for Cambria County
The Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History (PATCH) system, operated by the Pennsylvania State Police, provides statewide criminal history background checks for $22 per search. PATCH is accessible online through the PATCH overview page on PA.gov. The system compiles conviction data from all 67 Pennsylvania counties, including Cambria County, under the framework established by CHRIA, 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 9101-9183.
PATCH searches are submitted by name and date of birth. Online results typically come back promptly and show any Pennsylvania conviction records associated with the searched individual. PATCH is widely used by employers, schools, volunteer organizations, landlords, and individuals who need to document their own criminal history status. The $22 fee applies to each individual search regardless of the result.
Several important limitations apply to PATCH results. The system reflects only conviction data from Pennsylvania courts. It does not include arrests that did not lead to conviction, records sealed under Pennsylvania's Clean Slate Law (18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.2), which provides for automatic sealing of qualifying records after 10 years of crime-free conduct, federal criminal records, or records from other states. An individual with criminal history in another state or in the federal system would not show that history on a PATCH report.
For Cambria County purposes, supplementing a PATCH search with a direct check of the Clerk of Courts records or the UJS Portal dockets is advisable when the highest level of accuracy is needed. Court records at the Clerk of Courts are the primary source from which PATCH data is compiled, and direct verification at the courthouse ensures the most current available information. Reporting delays can occasionally create a lag between a court action and its appearance in PATCH results.
Cambria County residents who identify errors in their PATCH records can initiate a challenge through the PSP Records Division. Supporting documentation, such as court dismissal orders, expungement decrees, or proof of identity, should accompany challenge submissions. The challenge process is designed to correct genuine data errors and is separate from the expungement process, which requires a court petition.
Megan's Law in Cambria County
Pennsylvania's sex offender registry, maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police under the state's Megan's Law and Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) framework, is publicly searchable through the Pennsylvania Megan's Law website. Residents can search by offender name, by zip code, or by address to identify registered sex offenders living or working in Cambria County communities including Johnstown, Ebensburg, and surrounding areas.
The registry displays each registered offender's name, current address, photograph where available, offense information, and tier classification. Tier classifications under SORNA range from Tier I to Tier III based on the nature of the conviction, with higher tiers requiring more frequent registration updates and longer registration periods. Some offenders are classified as Sexually Violent Predators (SVPs), which carries the most stringent registration requirements and additional community notification obligations.
Cambria County offenders required to register must do so through the Pennsylvania State Police at the Ebensburg Barracks. The PSP Megan's Law Section coordinates registration compliance statewide and updates the registry as offenders report changes to their address, employment, or other required registration information. Residents who believe registry information for a specific offender is inaccurate or outdated may contact the PSP Megan's Law Section directly.
The Megan's Law website is a public safety tool, and Pennsylvania law prohibits using registry information to harass, threaten, or intimidate registered offenders. Searches on the website are not logged or shared with registered offenders. The registry covers offenders residing, working, or attending school within Pennsylvania, providing broad geographic coverage when searching for offenders connected to specific Cambria County locations or communities.
Nearby Counties
Cambria County borders several counties in central and western Pennsylvania. If the records you need involve activity near county lines, check these neighboring counties as well.