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 1, 2026.
San Francisco County, California, has about 828,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the San Francisco County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and six 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 San Francisco. 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: San Francisco County public records, California arrest records, California inmate search and California criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in San Francisco County
The San Francisco County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for San Francisco County. It reported 1,152 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in San Francisco County with a reporting agency of its own:
- San Francisco, 827,526 residents: 11,341 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 San Francisco County: the Highway Patrol's San Francisco Area Office and the Highway Patrol at Judicial Protection Section, North (state police); the University of California at San Francisco and San Francisco State University (campus police); Union Pacific Railroad in San Francisco County and San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco County (other).
How Many Arrests The San Francisco County Sheriff's Office 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.
- San Francisco County Sheriff's Office: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- San Francisco: 11,341 for 2023, 13,102 for 2022, 11,203 for 2020 and 16,203 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Through September 2026, San Francisco County Sheriff's Office reported 666 arrests, against 864 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in San Francisco County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in San Francisco County 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 1,240 people, down from about 1,260 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,236 beds, and it ran at 75 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 Francisco County Sheriff's Office at data.sf.gov/Public-Safety/Sheriff-Jail-Bookings/pnsi-p43w (page title: Sheriff Jail Bookings | DataSF), 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 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 San Francisco County
Whether someone was arrested in San Francisco County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the San Francisco 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 Francisco, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at sf.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-information); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at careers.sf.gov/classifications/index.php?classCode=8198).
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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in San Francisco: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Highway Patrol's San Francisco Area Office, the Highway Patrol at Judicial Protection Section, North or the University of California at San Francisco: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, through the court records page at sf.courts.ca.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sanfranciscopolice.org (page title: Public Records Request (Incident Related Documentation/BWC) | San Francisco Police Department).
- Your own statewide record: a Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR, $25.
Cities in San Francisco County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for San Francisco, the one city in San Francisco County.
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 San Francisco.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in San Francisco County each year?
The San Francisco County Sheriff's Office reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in San Francisco County?
Look on the custody page of the San Francisco County Sheriff's Office at data.sf.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in San Francisco County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the San Francisco County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in San Francisco County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco 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 San Francisco County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the San Francisco 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 sanfranciscopolice.org.
Is this the official San Francisco 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.