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.
Imperial County, California, has about 182,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Imperial County Sheriff's Office, seven 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 Imperial. 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: Imperial County public records, California arrest records, California inmate search and California criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Imperial County
The Imperial County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Imperial County. It reported 857 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists seven cities in Imperial County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- El Centro, 44,230 residents: 1,215 arrests reported for 2025.
- Calexico, 38,744 residents: 306 arrests reported for 2025.
- Brawley, 28,188 residents: 452 arrests reported for 2025.
- Imperial, 22,102 residents: 106 arrests reported for 2025.
- Calipatria, 6,522 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2025.
- Holtville, 5,612 residents: 63 arrests reported for 2025.
- Westmorland, 2,045 residents: 74 arrests reported for 2020.
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 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 Each Agency Reports in Imperial 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.
- El Centro: 1,215 for 2025, 1,109 for 2024, 827 for 2023, 954 for 2022, 1,029 for 2020 and 1,882 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Imperial County Sheriff's Office: 857 for 2025, 839 for 2023, 797 for 2022, 1,001 for 2020 and 2,091 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Brawley: 452 for 2025, 589 for 2022, 747 for 2020 and 2,142 for 2019; 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Calexico: 306 for 2025, 364 for 2023, 450 for 2022, 307 for 2020 and 681 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Imperial: 106 for 2025, 195 for 2024, 156 for 2023, 136 for 2022, 263 for 2020 and 284 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Holtville: 63 for 2025, 22 for 2024, 80 for 2023, 112 for 2022, 62 for 2020 and 93 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Calipatria: 4 for 2025 and 12 for 2024.
- Westmorland: 74 for 2020.
Together, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,003 arrests that year. The four of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,388 in 2025 against 1,338 in 2024, up 3.7 percent.
Through August 2026, the seven agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,748 arrests, against 1,885 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Imperial County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Imperial 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 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 Imperial County
Whether someone was arrested in Imperial County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: 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 Imperial County
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 Imperial County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (442) 265-2021.
- An arrest in El Centro, Calexico, Brawley, Imperial, Calipatria, Holtville 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 Union Pacific Railroad in Imperial County, the Highway Patrol's Winterhaven and El Centro Area Offices or the Highway Patrol at Calexico Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facility: the records office of the agency involved.
- 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.
Cities in Imperial County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the seven cities in Imperial County: El Centro, Calexico, Brawley, Imperial, Calipatria, Holtville and Westmorland.
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 Imperial.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Imperial 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 Imperial County each year?
El Centro reported 1,215 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the seven agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,003 between them.
Where are people arrested in Imperial County 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 Imperial County?
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 Imperial County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Imperial 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.
Is this the official Imperial 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.