Ontario Arrest Records: Who Makes Arrests, Where People Are Booked and How to Get the Report

Who Makes Arrests in Ontario

The FBI lists Ontario with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Ontario Police Department. It reported 3,624 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year. 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 San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 10,411 arrests for 2022.

The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in San Bernardino County: California State University at San Bernardino, Chaffey College and San Bernardino Community College (campus police); the San Bernardino Unified School District, the Fontana Unified School District, the Victor Valley Union High School District, Union Pacific Railroad in San Bernardino County and one more (other); California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection at San Bernardino and Patton State Hospital (state agency); the Highway Patrol's Inland Division, the Highway Patrol's Inland Investigative Services Unit, the Highway Patrol's Barstow, Needles, Victorville, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, Arrowhead and Morongo Basin Area Offices and the Highway Patrol at Mountain Pass Port of Entry Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facility (state police).

How Many Arrests Ontario 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.

• Ontario: 3,624 for 2023, 5,301 for 2022, 7,527 for 2020 and 7,896 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.

Ontario's 3,624 arrests in 2023 were down 32 percent from 5,301 in 2022.

Across San Bernardino County, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 16,078 arrests between them.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Ontario Are Held

A person kept in custody after an arrest in Ontario 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 2025 the jail held about 4,570 people, down from about 5,510 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 7,556 beds, and it ran at 60 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 San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office at jimsnetil.shr.sbcounty.gov/bookingsearch.aspx (page title: County of San Bernardino Inmate Locator), phone (213) 894-2485, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation lists its inmates at cdcr.ca.gov/search.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Ontario

An arrest in Ontario can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at sanbernardino.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-information-documents); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at da.sbcounty.gov, phone (909) 382-3800).

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 Ontario

An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. 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 Ontario police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at ontarioca.gov/government/police/divisions/administrative-services/r... (page title: Records | City of Ontario, California), Monday through Friday / 7 am - 6 pm, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
• An arrest by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (213) 894-2485.
• A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (909) 382-3800, handles discovery for pending cases.
• The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, through the court records page at sanbernardino.courts.ca.gov.
• Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at arc.sbcounty.gov/public-records-request (page title: Public Records Request | San Bernardino County Assessor).
• Your own statewide record: a Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR, $25.

The San Bernardino County guide covers every agency in the county: San Bernardino County arrest records.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Ontario each year?

Ontario reported 3,624 arrests to the FBI for 2023, its latest full year.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Ontario?

Look on the custody page of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office at jimsnetil.shr.sbcounty.gov/bookingsearch.aspx, or call (213) 894-2485. It covers people booked into the county jail.

Where are people arrested in Ontario booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Ontario?

The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino 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 Ontario?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Ontario police for its own arrests, the San Bernardino 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at arc.sbcounty.gov/public-records-request.

Is this the official Ontario 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.