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 on September 23, 2026.
Fresno County, California, has about 1.0 million residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, 14 city agencies and 12 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 Fresno. 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: Fresno County public records, California arrest records, California inmate search and California criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Fresno County
The Fresno County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Fresno County. It reported 3,093 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year.
Arrests inside 14 of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:
- Fresno, 550,105 residents: 15,325 arrests reported for 2025.
- Clovis, 127,993 residents: 3,030 arrests reported for 2025.
- Sanger, 26,649 residents: 1,028 arrests reported for 2023.
- Reedley, 26,138 residents: 1,305 arrests reported for 2023.
- Selma, 24,505 residents: 1,260 arrests reported for 2023.
- Kerman, 17,497 residents: 318 arrests reported for 2023.
- Coalinga, 16,722 residents: 519 arrests reported for 2023.
- Parlier, 14,429 residents: 386 arrests reported for 2023.
- Kingsburg, 13,128 residents: 392 arrests reported for 2023.
- Mendota, 12,623 residents: 617 arrests reported for 2023.
- Orange Cove, 9,708 residents: 167 arrests reported for 2023.
- Firebaugh, 8,424 residents: 252 arrests reported for 2023.
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 Fresno County: the Highway Patrol's Fresno and Coalinga Area Offices, the Highway Patrol's Central Division, the Highway Patrol's Central Investigative Services Unit and the Highway Patrol at Help Eliminate Auto Theft (Fresno HEAT) (state police); Coalinga State Hospital, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Fresno-Kings and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Southern Region (state agency); the State Center Community College District and California State University at Fresno (campus police); Union Pacific Railroad in Fresno County and the Clovis Unified School District (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Fresno 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.
- Fresno: 15,325 for 2025, 14,322 for 2024, 13,161 for 2023, 12,092 for 2022, 11,398 for 2021 and 14,911 for 2020.
- Clovis: 3,030 for 2025, 3,051 for 2023, 2,173 for 2022, 4,297 for 2020 and 4,400 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Fresno County Sheriff's Office: 3,093 for 2023, 1,677 for 2022, 4,824 for 2020 and 4,827 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Reedley: 1,305 for 2023, 1,462 for 2022, 1,513 for 2020 and 1,350 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Selma: 1,260 for 2023, 1,443 for 2022, 1,593 for 2020 and 1,532 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Sanger: 1,028 for 2023, 1,146 for 2022, 1,527 for 2020 and 1,452 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Mendota: 617 for 2023, 630 for 2022, 704 for 2020 and 817 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Coalinga: 519 for 2023, 608 for 2022, 642 for 2020 and 557 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Huron: 471 for 2023, 600 for 2022, 593 for 2020 and 536 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Kingsburg: 392 for 2023, 351 for 2022, 187 for 2020 and 306 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Parlier: 386 for 2023, 703 for 2022, 537 for 2020 and 710 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Fowler: 369 for 2023, 646 for 2022, 403 for 2020 and 414 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 18,355 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 15,325 in 2025 against 14,322 in 2024, up 7 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 11,096 arrests, against 10,640 in the same months of 2025.
Fresno County Sheriff's Office reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Fresno County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Fresno 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 2,480 people, down from about 3,050 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 3,295 beds, and it ran at 84 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 Fresno County Sheriff's Office at fresnosheriff.org/media-relations/new-feature-search-inmates-alphab... (page title: New Feature: Search Inmates Alphabetically), phone (559) 600-8137, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Fresno County
Whether someone was arrested in Fresno County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at publicportal.fresno.courts.ca.gov/public-portal); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at fresnoda.org/Home, phone (916) 445-6713).
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 Fresno 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 Fresno County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (559) 600-8137.
- An arrest in Fresno, Clovis, Sanger, Reedley, Selma, Kerman or another of the cities listed above: 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 the Highway Patrol's Fresno and Coalinga Area Offices, Coalinga State Hospital or the State Center Community College District: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (916) 445-6713, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, through the court records page at publicportal.fresno.courts.ca.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at fresnocountyca.gov (page title: Public Records Request | County of Fresno).
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR, $25.
Cities in Fresno County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 14 of the 15 cities in Fresno County: the twelve named above and Fowler and Huron. San Joaquin 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 Superior Court of California, County of Fresno.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Fresno 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 Fresno County each year?
Fresno reported 15,325 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 18,355 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Fresno County?
Ask the Fresno County Sheriff's Office at (559) 600-8137; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at fresnosheriff.org.
Where are people arrested in Fresno County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Fresno County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Fresno County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno 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 Fresno County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Fresno 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 fresnocountyca.gov.
Is this the official Fresno 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.