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 2, 2026.
San Juan County, Colorado, has 821 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office. 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 San Juan 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: San Juan County public records, Colorado arrest records, Colorado inmate search and Colorado criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in San Juan County
The San Juan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for San Juan County. It reported 15 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year.
How Many Arrests The San Juan County Sheriff's Office Reports
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.
- San Juan County Sheriff's Office: 15 for 2023, 16 for 2022, 17 for 2021, 14 for 2020 and 11 for 2019.
Booking: Where People Arrested in San Juan County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in San Juan 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 2024 the jail held about 2 people, down from about 2 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 4 beds, and it ran at 60 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 Juan County Sheriff's Office at sanjuansheriff.org (page title: About San Juan County Sheriff and Jail Inmate Locator), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 San Juan County
An arrest in San Juan County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the San Juan County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the San Juan County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at coloradojudicial.gov/courts/trial-courts/san-juan-county, phone 970-385-6145).
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 San Juan 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 San Juan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the San Juan County District Court, through the court records page at coloradojudicial.gov, phone 970-385-6145.
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Cities in San Juan County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists no city in San Juan County with an arrest reporting agency of its own; the counts above are the county agencies'.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the San Juan County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in San Juan County each year?
The San Juan County Sheriff's Office reported 15 arrests to the FBI for 2023, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in San Juan County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in San Juan 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 San Juan County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the San Juan 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 San Juan 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.