Ohio crash report: where to get your copy

Ohio gives you two routes

Most states make you choose a door. Ohio has two, and they serve different needs.

The first is a free statewide search run by the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Police agencies across the state file their crash reports with the department, and the public can look them up. The department describes what you find there as unofficial crash reports, for the past five years plus the current year.

The second is the agency that investigated. It holds the official report and, under state law, must furnish a copy to a person with an interest in the crash. The Ohio State Highway Patrol sells its reports through its own ordering system. City departments have their own counters and forms.

Using the state crash search

The search form has two halves. The top half is for people who hold a number. The bottom half, Advanced Options, is for everyone else.

1. If you have a number, start thereEnter the crash number, or one or more document numbers. The form accepts up to 10 document numbers at once, separated by semicolons.
2. If you do not, open Advanced OptionsThe form says it plainly: if you do not know the crash number or document number, search using Advanced Options.
3. Set the datesEnter a crash start date and a crash end date. A window of a few days on each side of the crash allows for a report dated differently from your memory of it.
4. Choose the countyEvery Ohio county is in the list.
5. Choose the agency if you know itThe agency list is long. It holds police departments, sheriffs' offices, township and campus forces, and each Highway Patrol post under its own line.

How agencies appear in the list

Each agency carries a short code after its name. Knowing how your agency is written saves scrolling.

Copied from the agency list on the state's search form as saved on 12 November 2026. The codes are the state's own.

When the search is empty

A report reaches the search only after the agency submits it and the state accepts it. Columbus police add a warning that applies to any agency: a report filed on paper will not be on the state's site for several weeks after submission.

What to have ready

What you need depends on the route you take. Gather it before you start, because the Highway Patrol's ordering page empties your cart after 20 minutes without activity.

• For the state search: the crash number or a document number if you were given one. Otherwise the date of the crash, give or take a few days, and the county.
• For a Highway Patrol order: the crash report number from the post that investigated, a browser that runs JavaScript, a valid credit card and a PDF viewer. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express are accepted.
• For a paper copy from Columbus police: cash, a money order or a certified check. Personal checks are not accepted there.
• For the Cleveland counter: a visit on a Monday, a Wednesday or a Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., which are the only days it is open for copies.
• For any agency: the names of the drivers and the place of the crash, in case the records unit has to find the report by hand.

Ohio agencies side by side

Reports from all four are also in the state search, because each appears in its agency list.

What Ohio law says

One section of the Ohio Revised Code, 5502.12, sets the rules. It has been in its current form since July 17, 2009. Read in order, it says four things.

The reports exist for the state's studies

Accident reports sent to the state "shall be for the use of the director of public safety for purposes of statistical, safety, and other studies."

The agency must give a copy to a person with an interest

"The law enforcement agency that submitted a report shall furnish a copy of such report and associated documents to any person claiming an interest arising out of a motor vehicle accident, or to the person's attorney".

The fee is four dollars, with one exception

The copy is furnished on payment of a fee of four dollars that is not refundable, "or the amount approved by the board of county commissioners" of the county where the agency sits. For accidents investigated by the state highway patrol the fee is four dollars, and it covers "all related reports and statements". Photographs and other electronic formats cost extra.

The patrol's file can be held back

Highway patrol reports, statements and photographs "may be withheld until all criminal prosecution has been concluded", and the director "may require proof" of an applicant's right to them.

What an Ohio crash report costs

How long it takes

The Highway Patrol gives a clear figure. Wait a minimum of seven business days from the date of the crash before ordering, so that the completed initial report is available. It adds that some crashes require more investigation after the first report, and that the extra material is not available until that work is complete.

The state search has no fixed delay. A report shows up when the agency has submitted it and the state has accepted it. Electronic filing is the fast path. Paper is the slow one, at several weeks by Columbus's account.

After you buy from the patrol, time runs the other way. The report is accessible for up to 72 hours, so download it straight away.

What is hidden on the copy you receive

The Highway Patrol lists what it routinely removes from a crash report before release, with the public records statute behind each item: driver's license numbers, the telephone numbers of the parties, residential and family information of dedicated public service workers, confidential law enforcement investigatory records, and the personal information of a juvenile involved in a school vehicle crash.

Parents have a way to see their own child's information. A parent or guardian completes the patrol's form OHP 0413, Request for Records, after buying the report.

When it goes wrong

You have no report number

Use Advanced Options on the state search with the dates and the county. For a trooper's report, the patrol says the crash report number comes from the Highway Patrol post that investigated, and the card troopers hand out has a space for the post's phone number.

The report is not on the state search

Widen the dates, clear the agency filter, and try the county alone. If it is still missing, the agency may not have submitted it yet, or it may have gone in on paper. Ask the agency's records unit.

You need the official copy

Go to the agency. For the Highway Patrol that means the ordering system, or Central Records at P.O. Box 182074, Columbus, OH 43218-2074, phone (614) 466-3536. For Columbus it means the Report Request form or the fax line at (614) 645-4001.

The crash is being prosecuted

Expect a delay for the patrol's full file. The law lets the director hold patrol reports, statements and photographs until all criminal prosecution has been concluded.

Crash data is not the same as a crash report

The same state page links to two tools that people mistake for the report search. The Crash Statistics System gives out data extracts built from the reports agencies submit. The OSTATS dashboards show statistics and maps. Neither one hands you your own report. The page also lists OH-1 forms, the blank crash report forms, which are for law enforcement agencies to order and not for the public.

Ohio pages on this site

• AgencyOhio State Highway PatrolThe official report with statements and drawings: the seven business day wait, the $4.00 fee, photos and what is blacked out.
• AgencyColumbus Division of PoliceWhy the report is on the state's site and not the city's, the free electronic copy, and the local request by form or fax.

Ohio crash report questions