Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site on September 24, 2026.
DeKalb County, Alabama, has about 73,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, 12 city agencies and one campus agency. An arrest leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the DeKalb County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts each agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: DeKalb County public records, Alabama arrest records, Alabama inmate search and Alabama criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in DeKalb County
The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for DeKalb County. It reported 646 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside 12 of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Fort Payne, 15,017 residents: 535 arrests reported for 2025.
- Rainsville, 5,931 residents: 304 arrests reported for 2025.
- Henagar, 2,322 residents: 64 arrests reported for 2025.
- Collinsville, 2,064 residents: 91 arrests reported for 2025.
- Crossville, 1,829 residents: 21 arrests reported for 2022.
- Sylvania, 1,824 residents: 215 arrests reported for 2025.
- Fyffe, 976 residents: 84 arrests reported for 2025.
- Powell, 929 residents: 53 arrests reported for 2025.
- Geraldine, 911 residents: 57 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ider, 738 residents: 28 arrests reported for 2024.
- Valley Head, 595 residents: 11 arrests reported for 2021.
- Mentone, 334 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2024.
A city on that list is reported separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in DeKalb County: Northeast Alabama Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in DeKalb County
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- DeKalb County Sheriff's Office: 646 for 2025, 354 for 2023, 496 for 2022, 872 for 2021 and 699 for 2019; 2020 and 2024 are missing months.
- Fort Payne: 535 for 2025, 442 for 2024, 516 for 2023, 451 for 2022 and 1,086 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Rainsville: 304 for 2025, 228 for 2024, 26 for 2023, 90 for 2021 and 388 for 2019; 2020 and 2022 are missing months.
- Sylvania: 215 for 2025, 183 for 2024, 162 for 2023, 97 for 2022, 102 for 2021 and 68 for 2020.
- Collinsville: 91 for 2025, 105 for 2023, 101 for 2022, 91 for 2021 and 147 for 2019; 2020 and 2024 are missing months.
- Fyffe: 84 for 2025, 90 for 2023 and 243 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Henagar: 64 for 2025, 48 for 2024, 98 for 2023, 35 for 2022 and 83 for 2021.
- Geraldine: 57 for 2025, 64 for 2024, 85 for 2023, 62 for 2022, 44 for 2021 and 67 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Powell: 53 for 2025, 47 for 2024, 73 for 2023 and 39 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Ider: 28 for 2024, 58 for 2023, 75 for 2022, 83 for 2021 and 94 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Crossville: 21 for 2022 and 54 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Valley Head: 11 for 2021.
Together, the nine agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,049 arrests that year. The six of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,228 in 2025 against 1,012 in 2024, up 21 percent.
Through August 2026, the seven agencies with every month so far on file reported 858 arrests, against 919 in the same months of 2025.
Crossville, Mentone, Ider and Valley Head reported only part of 2025 (10 months, 11 months, 10 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in DeKalb County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in DeKalb County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2021 the jail held about 150 people, down from about 260 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 381 beds, and it ran at 69 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office at dekalbcountysheriff.org/inmate-roster/filters/current/booking_time=... (page title: Inmate Roster | DeKalb County Alabama Sheriff’s Office | Sort Booking Time | Descending | Page 1), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in DeKalb County
Whether someone was arrested in DeKalb County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the DeKalb County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at dekalb.alacourt.gov, phone (256) 845-8525); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dekalbda.org).
Statewide, Alacourt is the statewide online index of Alabama trial court cases, sold by subscription.
Alabama does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court's own case index is the public record of an arrest that led to a charge.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in DeKalb County
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Alabama Public Records Law the agency must answer within a reasonable time; the statute sets no fixed deadline, and it may charge a reasonable fee for copies.
- An arrest by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Fort Payne, Rainsville, Henagar, Collinsville, Crossville, Sylvania or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by Northeast Alabama Community College: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the DeKalb County Circuit Court, through the court records page at dekalb.alacourt.gov, phone (256) 845-8525.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to ALEA.
Cities in DeKalb County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 12 of the 16 cities in DeKalb County: Fort Payne, Rainsville, Henagar, Collinsville, Crossville, Sylvania, Fyffe, Powell, Geraldine, Ider, Valley Head and Mentone. Hammondville, Shiloh, Pine Ridge and Lakeview have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the DeKalb County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in DeKalb County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Fort Payne (15,017)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in DeKalb County each year?
The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office reported 646 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the nine agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,049 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in DeKalb County?
Look on the custody page of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office at dekalbcountysheriff.org. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in DeKalb County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in DeKalb County?
The court files of criminal cases in the DeKalb County Circuit Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Alabama Public Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in DeKalb County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Alabama Public Records Law the answer is due within a reasonable time; the statute sets no fixed deadline.
Is this the official DeKalb County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.