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.
Crawford County, Arkansas, has about 62,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Crawford County Sheriff's Office, seven city agencies and one state 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Crawford 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: Crawford County public records, Arkansas arrest records, Arkansas inmate search and Arkansas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Crawford County
The Crawford County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Crawford County. It reported 467 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists seven cities in Crawford County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Van Buren, 24,396 residents: 549 arrests reported for 2025.
- Alma, 6,017 residents: 374 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mulberry, 1,624 residents: 7 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cedarville, 1,452 residents: 19 arrests reported for 2025.
- Kibler, 1,027 residents: 8 arrests reported for 2024.
- Dyer, 794 residents.
- Mountainburg, 531 residents: 2 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 FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Crawford County: the State Park at Lake Fort Smith State Park (state agency).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Crawford 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.
- Van Buren: 549 for 2025, 614 for 2024, 675 for 2023, 782 for 2022, 842 for 2021 and 929 for 2020.
- Crawford County Sheriff's Office: 467 for 2025, 357 for 2024, 756 for 2023, 729 for 2022, 677 for 2021 and 605 for 2020.
- Alma: 374 for 2025, 408 for 2024, 482 for 2023, 316 for 2022, 403 for 2021 and 475 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Cedarville: 19 for 2025, 14 for 2024, 4 for 2023, 4 for 2022 and 13 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Mulberry: 7 for 2025, 11 for 2024, 19 for 2023, 24 for 2022, 42 for 2021 and 45 for 2020.
- Mountainburg: 2 for 2025, 5 for 2020 and 41 for 2019; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Kibler: 8 for 2024 and 5 for 2023.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,418 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,416 in 2025 against 1,404 in 2024, up 0.9 percent.
Through May 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 677 arrests, against 552 in the same months of 2025.
Kibler reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Crawford County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Crawford 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 2021 the jail held about 190 people, up from about 190 in 2019. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Crawford County Sheriff's Office at crawfordcountysheriff.org/inmates (page title: Inmates | Crawford County Sheriff), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Arkansas Division of Correction, whose inmate locator is at doc.arkansas.gov/correction/online-services.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Crawford County
An arrest in Crawford County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: CourtConnect, the Arkansas Judiciary's free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at crawfordcountyar.gov/officials/prosecuting_attorney.cshtml, phone 479-474-5000).
Arkansas is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the state runs an online name-based background check open to the public, through the Arkansas State Police. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Crawford 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 Arkansas Freedom of Information Act the agency must answer within 3 working days when the record is not immediately available, and it may charge the actual cost of copying.
- An arrest by the Crawford County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Van Buren, Alma, Mulberry, Cedarville, Kibler, Dyer 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 the State Park at Lake Fort Smith State Park: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 479-474-5000, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: a request to the Arkansas State Police Identification Bureau.
Cities in Crawford County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the nine cities in Crawford County: Van Buren, Alma, Mulberry, Cedarville, Kibler, Dyer and Mountainburg. Chester and Rudy 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 Crawford County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Crawford County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Van Buren (24,396)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Crawford County each year?
Van Buren reported 549 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,418 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Crawford County?
Ask the Crawford County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at crawfordcountysheriff.org/inmates.
Where are people arrested in Crawford County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Crawford County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Crawford County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Arkansas State Police: the state runs an online name-based background check open to the public. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Crawford County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Crawford County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act the answer is due within 3 working days when the record is not immediately available.
Is this the official Crawford 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.