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.
Jefferson County, Colorado, has about 579,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, seven city agencies and three 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 Jefferson 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: Jefferson County public records, Colorado arrest records, Colorado inmate search and Colorado criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Jefferson County
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Jefferson County. It reported 1,714 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists seven cities in Jefferson County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Lakewood, 156,868 residents: 8,420 arrests reported for 2025.
- Arvada, 121,873 residents: 4,837 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wheat Ridge, 31,999 residents: 1,393 arrests reported for 2025.
- Golden, 20,151 residents: 605 arrests reported for 2025.
- Edgewater, 4,880 residents: 395 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mountain View, 521 residents: 57 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lakeside, 15 residents: 149 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.
The Westminster Police Department, the Bow Mar Police Department and the Littleton Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Jefferson County, so their arrests are not broken out for Jefferson County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Jefferson County: the Division of Gaming Criminal Enforcement and Investigations Section, Golden (state agency); Colorado School of Mines and Red Rocks Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Jefferson 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.
- Lakewood: 8,420 for 2025, 8,515 for 2024, 7,790 for 2023, 6,714 for 2022, 6,649 for 2021 and 6,999 for 2020.
- Arvada: 4,837 for 2025, 4,321 for 2024, 3,843 for 2023, 3,486 for 2022, 3,543 for 2021 and 3,197 for 2020.
- Jefferson County Sheriff's Office: 1,714 for 2025, 1,704 for 2024, 1,453 for 2023, 1,437 for 2022, 2,086 for 2021 and 2,211 for 2020.
- Wheat Ridge: 1,393 for 2025, 1,609 for 2024, 1,458 for 2023, 1,557 for 2022, 1,531 for 2021 and 1,344 for 2020.
- Golden: 605 for 2025, 612 for 2024, 654 for 2023, 679 for 2022, 652 for 2021 and 456 for 2020.
- Edgewater: 395 for 2025, 683 for 2024, 737 for 2023, 557 for 2022, 379 for 2021 and 407 for 2020.
- Lakeside: 149 for 2025, 372 for 2024, 195 for 2021, 178 for 2020 and 253 for 2019; 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Mountain View: 57 for 2025, 102 for 2024, 139 for 2023, 108 for 2022, 124 for 2021 and 114 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
Together, the eight agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 17,570 arrests that year. The seven of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 17,175 in 2025 against 17,235 in 2024, down 0.3 percent.
Through July 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 9,608 arrests, against 10,274 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Jefferson County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Jefferson 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 810 people, down from about 1,220 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 1,638 beds, and it ran at 50 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 Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at jeffcosheriffco.gov/jail/inmate-lookup (page title: Inmate Lookup | Jeffco Sheriff), phone (303) 271-5444, 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 sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Colorado Department of Corrections lists its inmates at cdoc.colorado.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Jefferson County
Whether someone was arrested in Jefferson County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Jefferson County District Court, kept by the clerk of the combined court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at jeffco.us/619/District-Attorneys-Office, phone 303-271-6800).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at coloradojudicial.gov/courts/trial-courts/jefferson-county/traffic-a... (page title: Traffic and Criminal Cases | Colorado Judicial Branch), belongs to a lower court, not to the Jefferson County District Court.
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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (303) 271-5444.
- An arrest in Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Edgewater, Mountain View 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 Division of Gaming Criminal Enforcement and Investigations Section, Golden, Colorado School of Mines or Red Rocks Community College: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 303-271-6800, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Jefferson County District Court it is kept by the clerk of the combined court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at coloradojudicial.gov, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Cities in Jefferson County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the eight cities in Jefferson County: Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Edgewater, Mountain View and Lakeside. Morrison 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 Jefferson County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Jefferson 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 Jefferson County each year?
Lakewood reported 8,420 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the eight agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 17,570 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Jefferson County?
Look on the custody page of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at jeffcosheriffco.gov/jail/inmate-lookup, or call (303) 271-5444. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Jefferson County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Jefferson 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 Jefferson County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Jefferson 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.
Is this the official Jefferson 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.