Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 25, 2026 and October 1, 2026.
Nogales, Arizona, in Santa Cruz County, has about 20,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the County Attorney files charges, a case in the Santa Cruz County Superior Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Nogales public records, Santa Cruz County arrest records, Arizona arrest records and Arizona inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Nogales
The FBI lists Nogales with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Nogales Police Department. It reported 897 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 498 arrests for 2024.
How Many Arrests Nogales Reports
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.
- Nogales: 897 for 2025, 1,004 for 2024, 1,054 for 2023, 1,149 for 2022, 980 for 2020 and 1,088 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Nogales's 897 arrests in 2025 were down 11 percent from 1,004 in 2024.
Across Santa Cruz County, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 1,502 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Nogales Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Nogales 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 2019 the jail held about 130 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 372 beds, and it ran at 34 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 Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office at santacruzcountyaz.gov/1056/Santa-Cruz-County-Sheriff (page title: Santa Cruz County Sheriff | Santa Cruz County, AZ), phone 520-761-7869, 2170 N. Congress Drive Nogales, AZ 85621, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry lists its inmates at corrections.az.gov/inmate-data-search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Nogales
For Nogales the place to look is Public Access to Court Information, the Arizona Judicial Branch's free statewide case search; the Maricopa and Pima county courts run their own, which shows whether charges were filed.
Arizona does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Arizona Department of Public Safety 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 Nogales
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 Arizona Public Records Law the agency must answer promptly, with no fixed number of days in the statute, and it may charge the cost of copies, and more for commercial requests.
- An arrest by the Nogales police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at nogalesaz.gov/287/Police-Records-Request-Form (page title: Police Records Request Form | Nogales, AZ), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 520-761-7869.
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review Packet, fingerprint-based, from the Department of Public Safety.
The Santa Cruz County guide covers every agency in the county: Santa Cruz County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Nogales each year?
Nogales reported 897 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Nogales booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Nogales?
The court files of criminal cases in the Santa Cruz County Superior Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Arizona Department of Public Safety is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Arizona Public Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Nogales?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Nogales police for its own arrests, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Arizona Public Records Law the answer is due promptly, with no fixed number of days in the statute.
Is this the official Nogales website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.