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. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Butte County, California, has about 208,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Butte County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and four campus, state or other agencies. 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 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 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: Butte County public records, California arrest records, California inmate search and California criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Butte County
The Butte County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Butte County. It reported 2,289 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists five cities in Butte County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Chico, 102,911 residents: 2,459 arrests reported for 2025.
- Oroville, 19,712 residents: 1,304 arrests reported for 2025.
- Paradise, 9,114 residents: 409 arrests reported for 2025.
- Gridley, 7,355 residents: 253 arrests reported for 2025.
- Biggs, 1,941 residents: 52 arrests reported for 2019.
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.
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 Each Agency Reports in Butte County
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.
- Chico: 2,459 for 2025, 2,500 for 2024, 2,314 for 2023, 3,367 for 2022, 4,126 for 2020 and 5,977 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Butte County Sheriff's Office: 2,289 for 2025, 2,906 for 2024, 2,963 for 2023, 2,476 for 2022, 3,482 for 2020 and 4,496 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- 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.
- Paradise: 409 for 2025, 453 for 2024, 468 for 2023, 491 for 2022, 1,073 for 2020 and 765 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Gridley: 253 for 2025, 219 for 2024, 229 for 2023, 272 for 2022, 849 for 2020 and 624 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Biggs: 52 for 2019.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,714 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 6,714 in 2025 against 7,267 in 2024, down 7.6 percent.
Through August 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 4,607 arrests, against 4,519 in the same months of 2025.
Biggs reported only part of 2025 (6 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Butte County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Butte County 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 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 Butte County
Whether someone was arrested in Butte County, 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 Butte 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 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 Butte County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Chico, Oroville, Paradise, Gridley or Biggs: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection at Butte, Union Pacific Railroad in Butte County or California State Parks at Northern Buttes: the records office of the agency involved.
- 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.
Cities in Butte County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the five cities in Butte County: Chico, Oroville, Paradise, Gridley and Biggs.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Butte County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Butte County each year?
Chico reported 2,459 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 6,714 between them.
Where are people arrested in Butte County 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 Butte County?
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 Butte County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Butte County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 Butte 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.