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 October 1, 2026.
Scottsdale, Arizona, in Maricopa County, has about 246,000 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 Maricopa 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: Scottsdale public records, Maricopa County arrest records, Arizona arrest records and Arizona inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Scottsdale
The FBI lists Scottsdale with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Scottsdale Police Department. It reported 6,750 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 Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 5,321 arrests for 2024.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Maricopa County: Maricopa Community College and Arizona State University's Main Campus (campus police).
How Many Arrests Scottsdale Reports
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.
- Scottsdale: 6,750 for 2025, 6,934 for 2024, 6,398 for 2023, 6,839 for 2022, 7,052 for 2021 and 8,403 for 2020.
Scottsdale's 6,750 arrests in 2025 were down 2.7 percent from 6,934 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Scottsdale reported 4,034 arrests, against 4,023 in the same months of 2025.
Across Maricopa County, the 16 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 122,747 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Scottsdale Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Scottsdale 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 2024 the jail held about 6,940 people, down from about 7,460 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 8,925 beds, and it ran at 76 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 Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at mcso.org/InmateInfo (page title: InmateInfo | Maricopa County Sheriff's Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 1, 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.
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 Scottsdale
Whether someone was arrested in Scottsdale, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Maricopa 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 maricopa.gov/m/directory/department?did=389, phone (602) 506-3411).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at justicecourts.maricopa.gov/app/courtrecords/casesearch (page title: Case Search), belongs to a lower court, not to the Maricopa 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 Scottsdale
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 Scottsdale police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at scottsdaleaz.gov/police/services/police-records-request (page title: Police Records Request), phone 480-312-1999, Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. - 4 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, (602) 506-3411, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Maricopa County Superior Court it is kept by the Clerk of the Superior Court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at justicecourts.maricopa.gov, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at maricopa.gov/4214/Public-Records (page title: Maricopa County Public Records Request | Maricopa County, AZ).
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review Packet, fingerprint-based, from the Department of Public Safety.
The Maricopa County guide covers every agency in the county: Maricopa County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Scottsdale each year?
Scottsdale reported 6,750 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Scottsdale?
Look on the custody page of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at mcso.org/InmateInfo. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Scottsdale booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Scottsdale?
The court files of criminal cases in the Maricopa 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 Scottsdale?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Scottsdale police for its own arrests, the Maricopa 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 maricopa.gov/4214/Public-Records.
Is this the official Scottsdale 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.