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 2, 2026.
Brawley, California, in Imperial County, has about 28,000 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the Superior Court of California, County of Imperial. 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: Brawley public records, Imperial County arrest records, California arrest records and California inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Brawley
The FBI lists Brawley with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Brawley Police Department. It reported 452 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 Imperial County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 857 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Imperial County: Union Pacific Railroad in Imperial County (other); the Highway Patrol's Winterhaven and El Centro Area Offices and the Highway Patrol at Calexico Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facility (state police).
How Many Arrests Brawley 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.
- Brawley: 452 for 2025, 589 for 2022, 747 for 2020 and 2,142 for 2019; 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
Through August 2026, Brawley reported 191 arrests, against 282 in the same months of 2025.
Across Imperial County, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,003 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Brawley Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Brawley 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 2025 the jail held about 380 people, up from about 380 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2017, the last year with a capacity figure, was 603 beds, and it ran at 79 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 Imperial County Sheriff's Office at imperialcounty.com (page title: About Imperial County, California Sheriff Jail Inmate Locator), phone (442) 265-2021, 328 Applestill Road, El Centro, CA 92243, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, whose inmate locator is at cdcr.ca.gov/search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Brawley
An arrest in Brawley can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Imperial County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Superior Court of California, County of Imperial, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at imperial.courts.ca.gov/online-services/named-record-searches).
California does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the California Department of Justice 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 Brawley
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 California Public Records Act the agency must answer within 10 days, with up to 14 more days in unusual circumstances, and it may charge the direct cost of copying only, not staff time.
- An arrest by the Brawley police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at brawley-ca.gov/departments/police-department (page title: Police Department | City of Brawley), phone (760) 344-2111, 351 Main St., Brawley, CA 92227, Monday - Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Imperial County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (442) 265-2021.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of California, County of Imperial, through the court records page at imperial.courts.ca.gov.
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR, $25.
The Imperial County guide covers every agency in the county: Imperial County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Brawley each year?
Brawley reported 452 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Brawley booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Imperial County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Brawley?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of Imperial are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the California Department of Justice is not public; you can get your own for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the California Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Brawley?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Brawley police for its own arrests, the Imperial County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the California Public Records Act the answer is due within 10 days, with up to 14 more days in unusual circumstances.
Is this the official Brawley 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.