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.
Montezuma County, Colorado, has about 27,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office and two 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 Montezuma 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: Montezuma County public records, Colorado arrest records, Colorado inmate search and Colorado criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Montezuma County
The Montezuma County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Montezuma County. It reported 273 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Montezuma County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Cortez, 9,151 residents: 1,561 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mancos, 1,272 residents: 14 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 Montezuma 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.
- Cortez: 1,561 for 2025, 1,417 for 2024, 1,362 for 2023, 1,154 for 2022, 978 for 2021 and 956 for 2020.
- Montezuma County Sheriff's Office: 273 for 2025, 228 for 2024, 234 for 2023, 268 for 2022, 351 for 2021 and 248 for 2020.
- Mancos: 14 for 2025, 0 for 2023, 1 for 2021, 1 for 2020 and 6 for 2019; 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,848 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,834 in 2025 against 1,645 in 2024, up 11 percent.
Through August 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,288 arrests, against 1,298 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Montezuma County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Montezuma 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 70 people, down from about 110 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 104 beds, and it ran at 67 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 Montezuma County Sheriff's Office at montezumacounty.gov/sheriffoffice (page title: Sheriff's Office <), phone (970) 564-4016, 730 East Driscoll Street, Cortez, CO 81321, 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 Montezuma County
For Montezuma County the place to look is the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at montezumacounty.gov/services/district-attorney, phone (970) 565-1147).
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 Montezuma 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 Montezuma County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (970) 564-4016.
- An arrest in Cortez or Mancos: 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) 565-1147, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at montezumacountysheriffco.nextrequest.com (page title: Criminal Justice RecordsNextRequest | 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 Montezuma County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the three cities in Montezuma County: Cortez and Mancos. Dolores 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 Montezuma County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Montezuma County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Cortez (9,151)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Montezuma County each year?
Cortez reported 1,561 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,848 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Montezuma County?
Ask the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office at (970) 564-4016; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at montezumacounty.gov/sheriffoffice.
Where are people arrested in Montezuma County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Montezuma 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 Montezuma County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Montezuma 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 montezumacountysheriffco.nextrequest.com.
Is this the official Montezuma 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.