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.
Oroville, California, in Butte County, has about 20,000 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 Butte. 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: Oroville public records, Butte County arrest records, California arrest records and California inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Oroville
The FBI lists Oroville with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Oroville Police Department. It reported 1,304 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 Butte County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 2,289 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Butte County: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection at Butte and California State Parks at Northern Buttes (state agency); Union Pacific Railroad in Butte County (other); California State University at Chico (campus police).
How Many Arrests Oroville 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.
- Oroville: 1,304 for 2025, 1,189 for 2024, 985 for 2023, 959 for 2022, 1,944 for 2020 and 2,200 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Oroville's 1,304 arrests in 2025 were up 9.7 percent from 1,189 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Oroville reported 821 arrests, against 923 in the same months of 2025.
Across Butte County, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,714 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Oroville Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Oroville 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 550 people, down from about 560 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 614 beds, and it ran at 87 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 Butte County Sheriff's Office at buttecounty.net/1723/BCSO-Booking-Logs (page title: BCSO Booking Logs | Butte County, CA), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 429), 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 Oroville
Whether someone was arrested in Oroville, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Butte County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Superior Court of California, County of Butte, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at butte.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-information).
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 Oroville
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 Oroville police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at orovilleca.gov/306/Department-Forms (page title: Department Forms | Oroville, CA), phone 530-538-2456, 2055 Lincoln Street, Oroville, CA 95966, Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Butte County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of California, County of Butte, through the court records page at butte.courts.ca.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at buttecounty.govqa.us (page title: Butte County, CA | Public Records Center).
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR, $25.
The Butte County guide covers every agency in the county: Butte County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Oroville each year?
Oroville reported 1,304 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Oroville booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Butte County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Oroville?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte 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 Oroville?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Oroville police for its own arrests, the Butte 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 buttecounty.govqa.us.
Is this the official Oroville 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.