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 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Payson, Arizona, in Gila County, has about 17,000 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 Gila 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: Payson public records, Gila County arrest records, Arizona arrest records and Arizona inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Payson
The FBI lists Payson with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Payson Police Department. It reported 674 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 Gila County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 849 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Payson 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.
- Payson: 674 for 2025, 632 for 2024, 771 for 2023, 804 for 2022, 870 for 2021 and 907 for 2020.
Payson's 674 arrests in 2025 were up 6.6 percent from 632 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Payson reported 400 arrests, against 368 in the same months of 2025.
Across Gila County, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,980 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Payson Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Payson 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 150 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 252 beds, and it ran at 58 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 Gila County Sheriff's Office at gilacountyaz.gov/government/sheriff/detention_bureau.php (page title: GIla County Sheriff Jail Bureau), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, whose inmate locator is at corrections.az.gov/inmate-data-search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Payson
Whether someone was arrested in Payson, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Gila County Superior Court, kept by the Clerk of the Superior Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at gilacountyaz.gov/government/county_attorney/index.php, phone (928) 402-8630).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at gilacountyaz.gov/government/courts/index.php (page title: Welcome to the Gila County Courts), phone 844-310-0743, belongs to a lower court, not to the Gila County Superior Court.
Statewide, Public Access to Court Information is the Arizona Judicial Branch's free statewide case search; the Maricopa and Pima county courts run their own.
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 Payson
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. 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 Payson police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at paysonaz.gov/Departments/police/pd-records.html (page title: Police Department Records), phone (602) 223-2000, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
- An arrest by the Gila County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, (928) 402-8630, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Gila County Superior Court it is kept by the Clerk of the Superior Court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at gilacountyaz.gov/government/courts/index.php, phone 844-310-0743, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at gilacountyaz.gov (page title: Gila County Clerk of the Board | Public Records Request).
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review Packet, fingerprint-based, from the Department of Public Safety.
The Gila County guide covers every agency in the county: Gila County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Payson each year?
Payson reported 674 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Payson?
Ask the Gila County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at gilacountyaz.gov.
Where are people arrested in Payson booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Gila County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Payson?
The court files of criminal cases in the Gila 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 Payson?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Payson police for its own arrests, the Gila 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at gilacountyaz.gov.
Is this the official Payson 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.