How to Get a Police Report in the St. Louis Metro
Revised August 16, 2026
How do I look up a local police report?
Start with the address, because there is no metro-wide database to search. The address tells you which of the metro’s dozens of departments wrote the report, and you then request it from that agency’s records unit. SLMPD’s locator takes an address or an 11-digit parcel number; St. Louis County Police publish a precinct list. If you still cannot tell, call any non-emergency dispatcher and read them the address.
Keep reading ↓Imagine it’s a Tuesday morning in Affton and you walk out to the driveway with a coffee in your hand. The passenger window of your car is a pile of pebbled blue glass on the concrete. The glovebox hangs open. The bag with your work laptop in it is not in the back seat anymore.
Or maybe it’s quieter than that. A long scrape down the driver’s door after dinner in Maryland Heights, no note. A bike lifted off the porch in Florissant while you were inside boiling pasta. A credit card opened in your name by somebody in Belleville who has never met you.
All of those end in the same place: someone on a phone — an adjuster, a bank’s fraud desk, a landlord — asking for a report number. That is where people here get stuck, because the St. Louis metro has an unusual number of separate police departments and no single front door.
How do I look up a local police report?
Ask the agency that wrote it — not the county, not the state, not 911. In the City of St. Louis that is the SLMPD Records Service Center at 1915 Olive Street. In St. Louis County it is the county’s online Sunshine request portal at recordsrequest.stlouiscountymo.gov. In Illinois it is a written FOIA request to that specific department.
The City’s Records Service Center is on the first floor at 1915 Olive, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 314-444-5551. Bring a state-issued photo ID or valid passport, plus a notarized release if you are requesting for someone else who was involved. Payment is cash, money order or business check — no personal checks, no cards. A report cannot be released until it is completed and approved, which for crash reports usually takes about five days.
In person, you can get a police report in St. Louis County at the Central Police Records unit, Room B-013 at 7900 Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, at 314-615-5317.
The Illinois side has no county-wide clearinghouse. Belleville’s police department takes requests through its own records portal; Collinsville handles police FOIA at 200 West Clay Street. Give them the case number if you have it, plus the date, the exact location, and the names involved.
Which police department do I actually call?
The one covering the city where it happened — which around here is genuinely hard to know. St. Louis County alone contains 88 municipalities plus large unincorporated stretches, boundaries change block to block, and several small cities do not run their own patrol at all. They buy it from somebody else.
Two facts trip up newcomers and lifers alike. The City of St. Louis is not part of St. Louis County; it has been an independent city since 1876, and SLMPD covers it. And St. Louis County Police patrol the unincorporated areas while also contracting service to municipalities including Jennings, Wildwood, Fenton, Green Park, Valley Park, Hanley Hills and Winchester. Dellwood moved its policing to the North County Police Cooperative in 2018.
The address decides everything. For the City, SLMPD’s locator takes a street address or an 11-digit parcel number and returns your district. St. Louis County Police publish a precinct list of the areas they patrol. If you cannot tell, call any non-emergency dispatcher and read them the address.
Watch the name collisions, too. O’Fallon, Missouri sits in St. Charles County; O’Fallon, Illinois sits in St. Clair County. Two cities, two police departments, opposite ends of the metro. St. Charles the city and St. Charles County run separate agencies as well.
What does a police report cost around St. Louis?
In Missouri, usually under $10. The Sunshine Law caps standard paper copies at 10 cents a page and allows a charge for staff time. SLMPD charges 10 cents a page plus $15 an hour, prorated, to locate a report, and says a simple request normally comes to less than $5. In Illinois, the first 50 pages of black-and-white letter or legal copies are free, then 15 cents a page.
Crash reports run on their own schedule, and they are the ones people usually need:
- Missouri State Highway Patrol: $6.00 for a basic crash report, and you wait 10 days from the crash investigation date. Check or money order only — cash gets returned. The Patrol currently notes a backlog.
- Illinois State Police: $5.00 per crash report through its online E-Pay service, plus a card service fee of 2.35% with a $1.00 minimum. Allow 10 or more business days.
- St. Charles County Police: $10 for an incident report at the Records Division, 101 Sheriff Dierker Court in O’Fallon, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Bring a Missouri driver’s license.
- O’Fallon, Missouri Police: a single accident report is free. Criminal reports run $27.00 an hour plus 10 cents a page.
Same paperwork, four prices — the arithmetic of dozens of agencies setting fees under one state law.
Nothing to do with reports — that leaning tree needs attention before spring.
Can I file a police report online in the St. Louis area?
For a short list of non-emergency incidents, yes. St. Louis County Police launched an online citizens reporting portal in late August 2025 covering identity theft, destruction of property, stolen license plates or tabs, lost articles and general crime tips. You can file under your name or anonymously.
The limits matter. A destroyed-property report handles up to five items and two vehicles; a lost-article report handles up to five items. Lost firearms cannot go through the portal — report those in person or by phone. The forms only cover areas St. Louis County Police patrol.
Illinois State Police let you complete your own crash report online in one narrow case: a single-vehicle, property-damage-only crash with no injuries to anyone, on an Interstate or a U.S. or Illinois Route. Anything else needs an officer.
The City of St. Louis does not advertise online incident filing. SLMPD’s public FAQ sends identity theft and fraud victims to the police district where they live or where the loss occurred, with a non-emergency line at 314-231-1212. Metro East municipalities vary; several still take reports only by phone or at the counter.
When should you call 911 instead of the non-emergency line?
SLMPD puts it plainly: 911 is for emergency situations that warrant immediate police response, such as a life-or-death situation, and the non-emergency number is for when police assistance is needed but not urgent. A break-in happening right now is 911. A break-in you discovered over breakfast is not.
Worth saving in your phone before you need them: SLMPD non-emergency, 314-231-1212. St. Louis County Police non-emergency, 636-529-8210. Collinsville, 618-344-2131. Every municipality publishes its own, and a number off a ten-year-old refrigerator magnet may no longer route anywhere useful.
What does an insurance claim actually need from you?
A report or case number, plus proof you owned what is gone. The number is the anchor — on a theft claim, most carriers will not move without it. Everything after that is documentation you control: photos, receipts, serial numbers, purchase dates, honest values. Photograph the scene before you sweep up the glass, and write the item list the same day.
The two states split on crash paperwork. In Missouri you must file a Motor Vehicle Accident Report, Form 1140, with the Department of Revenue when an uninsured motorist was involved and the crash caused more than $500 in property damage or an injury or death, and it happened within the past year. In Illinois, motorists are no longer required to file their own crash report at all — Public Act 102-0560 removed that duty. Illinois police still submit crash reports to IDOT within 10 days of investigating, under 625 ILCS 5/11-408.
For identity theft, IdentityTheft.gov generates an Identity Theft Report that the Federal Trade Commission says is generally enough for the credit bureaus and most companies; add a local police report if you have information about a suspect or a company demands one. If a Missouri carrier stalls, the Department of Commerce and Insurance hotline is 800-726-7390.
What if the department will not hand over the report?
Both states put a deadline in writing. Missouri’s Sunshine Law requires a response no later than the end of the third business day after the custodian of records receives your request, under Section 610.023.3. Illinois FOIA gives a public body five business days, extendable by five more for reasons the statute lists.
In Missouri you never have to say why you want a record, and fees are capped at 10 cents a page plus the time of the lowest-salaried employee capable of doing the search. Section 610.100 does let law enforcement close records when there is an “articulable concern” for the safety of a victim, witness or other person, or when an active investigation would likely be jeopardized. Basic incident information is generally open; detailed investigative material may not be. St. Charles County states outright that it cannot release reports on incidents still under investigation.
In Illinois, a request made for a commercial purpose gets 21 business days instead of five, and a denial can be appealed to the Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor within 60 calendar days of the denial letter. Either way, if the narrative is withheld, ask for the case number and the basic facts — usually all an adjuster or a bank needs to open a file.
What a break-in looks like from behind the counter
If you run a shop, the case number is the first thing your adjuster asks for and the last thing on your mind at 6 a.m. with a sheet of plywood in your hands. Get it that morning, and price the loss at the tag — the officer has to write a dollar figure, and that figure sets the charge. Missouri makes stealing a class D felony at $750 or more under RSMo 570.030. Illinois makes retail theft a felony above $300 and a Class A misdemeanor at or under it, under 720 ILCS 5/16-25. The same cart of merchandise is charged differently in Granite City than in Kirkwood.
The loss that quietly eats margin is rarely the smashed door. It is the steady shrink nobody writes up, plus false-alarm bills. The City of St. Louis requires every commercial alarm system to be registered under Ordinance 66264 — $50 commercial, $25 residential — with the first false alarm in twelve months free, $25 for the second, $50 for the third, and police response suspended after the fourth. The Comptroller’s office reported past-due false-alarm fines of $755,989 as of June 30, 2025. County and Metro East cities run their own versions.
SLMPD offers free robbery-prevention training and a Video Surveillance Federation that links business cameras to its Real Time Crime Center; your district’s community outreach officer is the contact. And when someone three neighborhoods over needs what you sell, they search by category and city — which is why a complete, current listing earns its twenty minutes.
Related reading: if the car is gone rather than broken into and disposing of what was ruined.
Not sure whose jurisdiction you were standing in? Browse police departments across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, then save the non-emergency number for the city you actually live in — not the one on your mailing address.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get a police report in St. Louis?
Missouri’s Sunshine Law requires a response by the end of the third business day, but a response is not the same as the document. SLMPD notes a report cannot be released until it is completed and approved, which for crash reports usually takes about five days. Illinois State Police orders can take 10 or more business days.
How do I get a copy of a police report in Missouri?
From the agency that wrote it, not the state. Missouri’s Sunshine Law caps standard paper copies at 10 cents a page plus staff time, and gives the custodian of records until the end of the third business day to respond to your request.
How to obtain a St. Louis city police report?
Go to the SLMPD Records Service Center, first floor at 1915 Olive Street, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 314-444-5551. Bring a state-issued photo ID or valid passport, plus a notarized release if the report belongs to someone else. Payment is cash, money order or business check only.
Where can I get a police report in St. Louis County?
Through the county’s online Sunshine request portal at recordsrequest.stlouiscountymo.gov, or in person at Central Police Records, Room B-013, 7900 Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton, 314-615-5317. That covers incidents St. Louis County Police handled — a municipal department keeps its own records.
Do I need a police report to file an insurance claim for theft?
For a theft claim, effectively yes. Carriers want the report or case number to open the file. Photograph the scene before cleaning up, write the item list the same day with serial numbers and purchase dates, and notify your insurer promptly.
Can I get a police report for somebody else?
Usually only with paperwork. SLMPD requires a state-issued photo ID and a notarized release if you are requesting on behalf of an involved party. St. Charles County asks for a Missouri driver’s license and a completed request form. Illinois departments treat it as a FOIA request, and personal information may be redacted first.
How do I look up a local police report?
Start with the address, because there is no metro-wide database to search. The address tells you which of the metro’s dozens of departments wrote the report, and you then request it from that agency’s records unit. SLMPD’s locator takes an address or an 11-digit parcel number; St. Louis County Police publish a precinct list. If you still cannot tell, call any non-emergency dispatcher and read them the address.
What can I report to St. Louis County Police online?
The county’s citizens reporting portal, launched in late August 2025, covers identity theft, destruction of property, stolen license plates or tabs, lost articles and general crime tips. Lost firearms must be reported in person or by phone, and the forms only cover areas county police patrol.
What do I do if the police report has a mistake in it?
Contact the records division of the agency that wrote it rather than the officer. Agencies will not delete an officer’s observations or a witness’s statement, but factual errors — a misspelled name, a wrong plate, an item you forgot to list — can typically be corrected or added through a supplemental report. Get the corrected copy before you send anything to an adjuster.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.