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.
Santa Cruz County, Arizona, has about 51,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office and one city 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 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 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: Santa Cruz County public records, Arizona arrest records, Arizona inmate search and Arizona criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Santa Cruz County
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Santa Cruz County. It reported 498 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
One city in Santa Cruz County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Nogales, 19,965 residents: 897 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Santa Cruz 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.
- 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.
- Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office: 498 for 2024, 247 for 2023 and 970 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 1,502 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 1,502 in 2024 against 1,301 in 2023, up 15 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Santa Cruz County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Santa Cruz County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
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 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 Santa Cruz County
For Santa Cruz County 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 Santa Cruz 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 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 Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 520-761-7869.
- An arrest in Nogales: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review Packet, fingerprint-based, from the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Santa Cruz County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the two cities in Santa Cruz County: Nogales. Patagonia 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 Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Santa Cruz County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Nogales (19,965)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Santa Cruz County each year?
Nogales reported 897 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Santa Cruz County sent in full, the two with every month on file reported 1,502 between them.
Where are people arrested in Santa Cruz County 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 Santa Cruz County?
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 Santa Cruz County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Arizona Public Records Law the answer is due promptly, with no fixed number of days in the statute.
Is this the official Santa Cruz 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.