SearchSystems Editorial

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.

About this guide

St. Clair County, Alabama, has about 97,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office and ten city agencies. 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 St. Clair 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: St. Clair County public records, Alabama arrest records, Alabama inmate search and Alabama criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in St. Clair County

The St. Clair County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for St. Clair County. It reported 1,999 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside ten 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:

  • Pell City, 14,094 residents: 509 arrests reported for 2024.
  • Moody, 13,596 residents: 497 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Margaret, 6,654 residents: 100 arrests reported for 2022.
  • Odenville, 5,711 residents: 55 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Springville, 5,392 residents: 118 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Argo, 4,369 residents: 82 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Ashville, 2,402 residents: 122 arrests reported for 2022.
  • Riverside, 2,304 residents: 56 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Ragland, 1,709 residents: 17 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Steele, 1,003 residents: 29 arrests reported for 2025.

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 Trussville Police Department and the Leeds Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including St. Clair County, so their arrests are not broken out for St. Clair County here.

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in St. Clair County

The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts 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.

  • St. Clair County Sheriff's Office: 1,999 for 2025, 1,681 for 2024, 1,274 for 2023, 669 for 2022 and 2,980 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
  • Moody: 497 for 2025, 450 for 2024, 585 for 2023, 439 for 2022 and 646 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
  • Springville: 118 for 2025, 177 for 2024, 178 for 2023, 133 for 2022 and 439 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
  • Argo: 82 for 2025, 147 for 2024, 94 for 2023, 70 for 2022 and 164 for 2021.
  • Riverside: 56 for 2025, 63 for 2024, 39 for 2023, 40 for 2022, 28 for 2021 and 46 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
  • Odenville: 55 for 2025, 174 for 2023, 194 for 2022 and 292 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
  • Steele: 29 for 2025 and 39 for 2024.
  • Ragland: 17 for 2025, 21 for 2024, 27 for 2023, 4 for 2022 and 2 for 2021.
  • Pell City: 509 for 2024 and 429 for 2022; 2023 is missing months.
  • Ashville: 122 for 2022, 224 for 2021 and 118 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
  • Margaret: 100 for 2022, 142 for 2021 and 177 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.

Together, the eight agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,853 arrests that year. The seven of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,798 in 2025 against 2,578 in 2024, up 8.5 percent.

Through August 2026, the eight agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,164 arrests, against 1,835 in the same months of 2025.

Margaret, Pell City and Ashville reported only part of 2025 (11 months, 11 months and 8 months) and are left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in St. Clair County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in St. Clair County and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.

On an average day in 2023 the jail held about 160 people, down from about 220 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 192 beds, and it ran at 81 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 St. Clair County Sheriff's Office at stclairsheriff.org/inmate-roster (page title: Inmate Roster | St. Clair County 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 St. Clair County

Whether someone was arrested in St. Clair County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the St. Clair County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at stclair.alacourt.gov, phone (205) 594-2184); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at stclairco.com/160/District-Attorney, phone 205-338-9429).

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 St. Clair County

The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 St. Clair County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
  • An arrest in Pell City, Moody, Margaret, Odenville, Springville, Argo 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.
  • A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 205-338-9429, handles discovery for pending cases.
  • The court file of a case that was filed: the St. Clair County Circuit Court, through the court records page at stclair.alacourt.gov, phone (205) 594-2184.
  • Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at stclairsheriff.org/public-records-request (page title: Public Records Request | St. Clair County Sheriff's Office).
  • Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to ALEA.

Cities in St. Clair County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the ten cities in St. Clair County: Pell City, Moody, Margaret, Odenville, Springville, Argo, Ashville, Riverside, Ragland and Steele.

Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the St. Clair County Circuit Court.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in St. Clair County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in St. Clair County each year?

The St. Clair County Sheriff's Office reported 1,999 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the eight agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,853 between them.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in St. Clair County?

Look on the custody page of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office at stclairsheriff.org/inmate-roster. It covers people booked into the county jail.

Where are people arrested in St. Clair County booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in St. Clair County?

The court files of criminal cases in the St. Clair 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 St. Clair County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the St. Clair 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at stclairsheriff.org/public-records-request.

Is this the official St. Clair 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.