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 between September 24, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, has about 241,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, six city agencies and three campus, state or other 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 Tuscaloosa 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: Tuscaloosa County public records, Alabama arrest records, Alabama inmate search and Alabama criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Tuscaloosa County
The Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Tuscaloosa County. It reported 587 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists six cities in Tuscaloosa County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Tuscaloosa, 114,288 residents: 5,518 arrests reported for 2025.
- Northport, 31,492 residents: 523 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lake View, 3,905 residents: 7 arrests reported for 2024.
- Brookwood, 2,453 residents: 51 arrests reported for 2025.
- Vance, 2,303 residents: 87 arrests reported for 2025.
- Coaling, 1,997 residents: 5 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 Woodstock Police Department and the Moundville Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Tuscaloosa County, so their arrests are not broken out for Tuscaloosa County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Tuscaloosa County: the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and Shelton State Community College (campus police); Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility (state agency).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Tuscaloosa 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.
- Tuscaloosa: 5,518 for 2025, 5,421 for 2024, 5,107 for 2023 and 3,516 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office: 587 for 2025, 523 for 2024, 813 for 2023, 733 for 2022, 755 for 2021 and 1,349 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Northport: 523 for 2025, 447 for 2024, 572 for 2023, 449 for 2022 and 443 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Vance: 87 for 2025, 229 for 2024, 43 for 2023, 9 for 2021 and 41 for 2019; 2020 and 2022 are missing months.
- Brookwood: 51 for 2025, 67 for 2024, 105 for 2023, 36 for 2022 and 6 for 2021.
- Coaling: 5 for 2025 and 7 for 2024.
- Lake View: 7 for 2024, 27 for 2023, 110 for 2022 and 53 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,771 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 6,771 in 2025 against 6,694 in 2024, up 1.2 percent.
Through July 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 3,925 arrests, against 3,989 in the same months of 2025.
Lake View reported only part of 2025 (6 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Tuscaloosa County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Tuscaloosa 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 700 people, up from about 580 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 716 beds, and it ran at 98 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office at tcsoal.org (page title: Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office), phone 205-752-0616, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Tuscaloosa County
Whether someone was arrested in Tuscaloosa County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at tuscaloosa.alacourt.gov, phone (205) 464-8260); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tuscaloosada.com, phone 205-349-1252).
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 Tuscaloosa 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 Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 205-752-0616.
- An arrest in Tuscaloosa, Northport, Lake View, Brookwood, Vance or Coaling: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility or Shelton State Community College: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 205-349-1252, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court, through the court records page at tuscaloosa.alacourt.gov, phone (205) 464-8260.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to ALEA.
Cities in Tuscaloosa County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the seven cities in Tuscaloosa County: Tuscaloosa, Northport, Lake View, Brookwood, Vance and Coaling. Coker has 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 Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Tuscaloosa County each year?
Tuscaloosa reported 5,518 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 6,771 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Tuscaloosa County?
Ask the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office at 205-752-0616; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at tcsoal.org.
Where are people arrested in Tuscaloosa County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Tuscaloosa County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Tuscaloosa 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 Tuscaloosa County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Tuscaloosa 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 Tuscaloosa 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.