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.
Delta County, Colorado, has about 32,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Delta County Sheriff's Office and four city 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 Delta County District Court. 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: Delta County public records, Colorado arrest records, Colorado inmate search and Colorado criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Delta County
The Delta County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Delta County. It reported 383 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside four 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:
- Delta, 9,688 residents: 334 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cedaredge, 2,432 residents: 36 arrests reported for 2025.
- Paonia, 1,464 residents: 31 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hotchkiss, 942 residents: 30 arrests reported for 2025.
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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Delta 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.
- Delta County Sheriff's Office: 383 for 2025, 387 for 2024, 486 for 2023, 520 for 2022, 531 for 2021 and 473 for 2020.
- Delta: 334 for 2025, 499 for 2024, 481 for 2023, 502 for 2021, 460 for 2020 and 510 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- Cedaredge: 36 for 2025, 33 for 2024, 49 for 2021 and 19 for 2020; 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Paonia: 31 for 2025 and 32 for 2024.
- Hotchkiss: 30 for 2025, 43 for 2024, 46 for 2023, 13 for 2021, 20 for 2020 and 33 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 814 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 814 in 2025 against 994 in 2024, down 18 percent.
Through August 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 503 arrests, against 524 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Delta County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Delta 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 50 people, down from about 59 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 90 beds, and it ran at 56 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 Delta County Sheriff's Office at deltacountyco.gov/62/Detention-Facility (page title: Delta County Detention Facility | Delta County, CO), phone 970-874-2021, 555 Palmer Street Delta, CO 81416, Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Colorado Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at cdoc.colorado.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Delta County
Whether someone was arrested in Delta County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Delta County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at deltacountyco.gov/14/Courts, phone 970-874-6280); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at deltacountyco.gov/m/directory/department?did=25, phone 970-874-2085).
Colorado is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the state runs an online name-based criminal history check open to the public, through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Delta 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 Colorado Open Records Act the agency must answer within 3 working days, extendable to 7 when there are extenuating circumstances, and it may charge research and retrieval time after the first hour, plus copying.
- An arrest by the Delta County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 970-874-2021.
- An arrest in Delta, Cedaredge, Paonia or Hotchkiss: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 970-874-2085, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Delta County District Court, through the court records page at deltacountyco.gov/14/Courts, phone 970-874-6280.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at deltacountyco.nextrequest.com/requests/new (page title: NextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Cities in Delta County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the six cities in Delta County: Delta, Cedaredge, Paonia and Hotchkiss. Orchard City and Crawford have 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 Delta County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Delta County each year?
The Delta County Sheriff's Office reported 383 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 814 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Delta County?
Ask the Delta County Sheriff's Office at 970-874-2021; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at deltacountyco.gov/62/Detention-Facility.
Where are people arrested in Delta County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Delta County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Delta County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation: the state runs an online name-based criminal history check open to the public. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Colorado Open Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Delta County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Delta County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Colorado Open Records Act the answer is due within 3 working days, extendable to 7 when there are extenuating circumstances; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at deltacountyco.nextrequest.com/requests/new.
Is this the official Delta 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.