THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026
VOL. III · NO. 524
Price: Free · Records open to the public
Public records, reported plainly — from every county in the Treasure State.
Established 2026
Edition THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026
Helena —°F · Clear
Records 51,562
Blotters 873
Bookings 10,774
Court Ev. 519
Sanctions 35
Mt. Counties 56
Late Edition: Records refreshed THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026 · 56 Counties updated within the last hour.
/ About

About

Montana's public records, in one searchable place.

Montana Blotter is an open-source, free-to-read project that pulls police blotters, jail rosters, court activity, missing-person alerts, and other public-record data from all 56 Montana counties and publishes it in a consistent, searchable form.

Mission Since 2023

Make Montana's public records actually public.

Most Montana counties publish police blotters and jail rosters as PDFs on a sheriff's website. Montana Blotter collects them, parses them, links them to the right county, and puts them on a single map. Read it for free at the kitchen table, on a phone in a parking lot, or in a newsroom filing a story.

What we publish

  • Daily police blotters — incidents, calls for service, and dispatch logs from every cooperating county and city.
  • Jail rosters and new bookings — who's currently in custody and who was booked in the last 24 hours.
  • Court activity — case filings, hearings, and dispositions from Montana's district courts.
  • Missing persons and warrants — public alerts, with subscribe-by-county notifications.
  • Public meetings — city council, county commission, and school board agendas hosted on agendas.montanablotter.com.
  • Code violations, license sanctions, and sex-offender registry updates — the harder-to-find civic records.
  • Open editorial — a daily blog and a public-records blog wire that translates confusing filings into plain English.

How it works

We pull records three ways: an IMAP pipeline that watches a shared mailbox for blotter PDFs, scheduled scrapers that hit county and city websites on rotation, and integration with the Montana Judicial Branch's public docket. Each record is parsed, normalized, de-duplicated against what we already have, and tagged with the source URL so you can verify it back to the original government page.

Coverage is uneven by county — some publish daily, some publish weekly, some stopped publishing during COVID and never restarted. The /sources page shows exactly which counties we read from, when each was last refreshed, and where the gaps are.

What we won't do

  • No paywall. The public site is free to read. Always has been.
  • No fabrication. If a county didn't publish a record, we don't invent one. If a PDF is illegible, we mark it unread rather than guess.
  • No stripping of provenance. Every record links back to the original source. If you need to verify, the cite is one click away.
  • No victim names. Domestic violence, sexual assault, and juvenile cases are reviewed by the editorial desk and sensitive fields are redacted before publication.
  • No drop-in replacement for official records. We're a mirror and a directory, not the county clerk. The county's website is the source of record; we're a faster way to find it.

Who runs it

Montana Blotter is built and operated by an independent Montana developer and a small crew of editors and engineers. The founder lives in Great Falls and built the first version of the site after watching a county sheriff print a blotter PDF in 4-point type and post it as a scanned image. Open-source code, transparent process, plain-language records.

The site is supported by reader donations, paid local directories (lawyers, bail bonds, recovery centers), and a small handful of civic-tech sponsorships. Editorial decisions are independent of sponsors.

Under the hood

Python + Flask, SQLite, and a small fleet of scheduled workers. The mobile app is React Native on Expo. The full source is available on the project's GitHub repository, and patches from outside contributors are welcome. Detailed architecture, source coverage, and operating procedures are documented in the repository's docs/ directory.

Standards, corrections, and accountability

We publish a Sourcing Standards page that explains how we gather, verify, and label data. If a record is wrong, outdated, or missing something, the Corrections Policy tells you exactly how to report it and what we'll do. The Privacy Policy covers how we handle visitors and subscribers.

How to help

  • Report a gap. If your county's not listed or hasn't been refreshed in a while, email us and we'll chase the source.
  • Tip a story. If you've found a public record that should be on the site, send the URL. We don't accept anonymous submissions for criminal allegations — only documented public records.
  • Fund the work. Donations keep the servers running and fund the editor time. Civic-tech sponsorships are listed on the /transparency page.
  • Fix things. The codebase is open. Parser improvements, accessibility fixes, and new county integrations are all welcome pull requests.

Contact

Montana Blotter
Great Falls, Montana
Records, corrections, and source updates: records@montanablotter.com

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026
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© 2026 Montana Blotter · Free Public Records
Editorial Standards

Montana Blotter is designed to make public records and public meeting information easier to access. It is not a government office, and it does not replace official notice, clerk records, court files, or agency databases.

1. Primary Source Rule
We prefer direct links to official county, city, court, sheriff, police, and state judiciary pages. Where possible, each page should point readers back to the original public record, agenda, minutes page, or official document listing.

2. What We Standardize
Date and time formatting — location and body-name labeling — document labels such as agenda, packet, or minutes — searchable statewide filters and metadata.

3. What We Do Not Claim
We do not claim to be the official keeper of public records. We do not guarantee that a third-party government site is complete, current, or correctly maintained. We do not treat summaries or extracted text as a substitute for the official source file.

4. Update Cadence
Automated sources are checked on a recurring basis. If a source is stale, broken, or moved, the originating public body remains the authoritative reference until the source is repaired.

5. Provenance and Visibility
We aim to show where information came from, when it was last refreshed, and how users can verify it.

6. Redactions and Sensitive Material
We may review records for obvious sensitivity, legal restrictions, or redaction issues. The existence of a public record does not automatically mean every field or derivative presentation should be amplified without review.

7. Corrections
If a source link breaks, a meeting is mislabeled, a record is duplicated, or a page needs clarification, see the Corrections Policy for the reporting workflow.

8. Government and Clerk Communications
If you work for a Montana public body and need a source updated, corrected, or removed, contact us directly. We prefer exact URLs, dates, and a brief explanation of the change.

9. Contact
Montana Blotter — records@montanablotter.com

Read full standards →
Corrections Policy

We want corrections requests to be specific, easy to verify, and fast to act on. The more concrete the report, the faster it can be reviewed.

1. What To Report
Broken official source links — moved agenda or minutes pages — incorrect meeting date, body name, or location label — duplicate records or meetings — stale source pages — material factual errors in a summary or description.

2. What To Include
The exact Montana Blotter URL — the exact official source URL that should be used — a short description of what is wrong — if timing matters, the date and time the official source changed.

3. Where To Send It
Email records@montanablotter.com with subject line Correction Request or Source Update. If you represent a government office, say so in the message.

4. Review Standard
We review corrections against the official source when available. If a report cannot be verified, we may ask for a clarifying URL, screenshot, or exact document reference before changing the page.

5. Response Goal
Our goal is to review straightforward source and labeling issues within two business days. Complex disputes, legal issues, and record-sensitivity questions may take longer.

6. How Fixes Are Handled
Broken or moved source URLs are updated at the source-config level when possible. Mislabeled dates, titles, or locations are corrected in the public presentation. If a government source removes or replaces a document, the official source controls.

7. Limits
A correction request does not automatically guarantee removal. Montana Blotter may preserve accurate public-record references while updating labels, links, timestamps, or explanatory text.

Read full corrections policy →
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