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.
Garfield County, Colorado, has about 63,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Garfield County Sheriff's Office and six 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 Garfield 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: Garfield County public records, Colorado arrest records, Colorado inmate search and Colorado criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Garfield County
The Garfield County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Garfield County. It reported 500 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside six 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:
- Rifle, 10,663 residents: 382 arrests reported for 2025.
- Glenwood Springs, 10,311 residents: 594 arrests reported for 2025.
- Carbondale, 6,758 residents: 203 arrests reported for 2025.
- New Castle, 4,894 residents: 96 arrests reported for 2025.
- Silt, 3,727 residents: 60 arrests reported for 2023.
- Parachute, 1,362 residents: 22 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 Garfield 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.
- Glenwood Springs: 594 for 2025, 536 for 2024, 476 for 2023, 528 for 2022, 534 for 2021 and 662 for 2020.
- Garfield County Sheriff's Office: 500 for 2025, 474 for 2024, 453 for 2023, 373 for 2022, 391 for 2021 and 380 for 2020.
- Rifle: 382 for 2025, 431 for 2024, 335 for 2023, 460 for 2022, 435 for 2021 and 692 for 2020.
- Carbondale: 203 for 2025, 154 for 2023, 149 for 2022, 143 for 2021, 156 for 2020 and 225 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- New Castle: 96 for 2025, 105 for 2024, 61 for 2023, 46 for 2021, 29 for 2020 and 66 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- Parachute: 22 for 2025, 16 for 2024, 20 for 2023, 71 for 2021, 61 for 2020 and 95 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- Silt: 60 for 2023, 61 for 2022, 60 for 2021 and 168 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,797 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,594 in 2025 against 1,562 in 2024, up 2 percent.
Through June 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 992 arrests, against 881 in the same months of 2025.
Silt reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Garfield County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Garfield 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 72 people, down from about 100 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 193 beds, and it ran at 37 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 Garfield County Sheriff's Office at garcosheriff.com/current-inmates (page title: Current Inmates | Garfield County Sheriff Colorado), phone (970) 945-0453, 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 Colorado Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at cdoc.colorado.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Garfield County
Whether someone was arrested in Garfield County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Garfield County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Garfield County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at garfieldcountyco.gov/courts, phone 970-945-8635); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at garfieldcountyco.gov/attorney, phone 970-945-5075).
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 Garfield 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 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 Garfield County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (970) 945-0453.
- An arrest in Rifle, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, New Castle, Silt or Parachute: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 970-945-5075, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Garfield County District Court, through the court records page at garfieldcountyco.gov/courts, phone 970-945-8635.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at garfieldcountyco.gov (page title: Open Records Policy | Attorney).
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Cities in Garfield County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the seven cities in Garfield County: Rifle, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, New Castle, Silt and Parachute. Carbonate 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 Garfield County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Garfield County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Rifle (10,663)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Garfield County each year?
Glenwood Springs reported 594 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,797 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Garfield County?
Look on the custody page of the Garfield County Sheriff's Office at garcosheriff.com/current-inmates, or call (970) 945-0453. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Garfield County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Garfield County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Garfield 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 Garfield County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Garfield 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 garfieldcountyco.gov.
Is this the official Garfield 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.