Emporia Arrest Records: Who Makes Arrests, Where People Are Booked and How to Get the Report

Who Makes Arrests in Emporia

The FBI lists Emporia with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Emporia Police Department. It reported 432 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.

Outside the city, the Lyon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 21 arrests for 2025.

The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Lyon County: Emporia State University (campus police).

How Many Arrests Emporia 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.

• Emporia: 432 for 2025, 609 for 2024, 884 for 2023 and 927 for 2022.

Emporia's 432 arrests in 2025 were down 29 percent from 609 in 2024.

Through June 2026, Emporia reported 172 arrests, against 227 in the same months of 2025.

Across Lyon County, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 453 arrests between them.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Emporia Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Emporia 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 2019 the jail held about 130 people. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.

SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Lyon County Sheriff's Office at lyoncountyks.gov/374/Detention-Center (page title: Detention Center | Lyon County, KS), phone 620-341-3205, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.

A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Kansas Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at doc.ks.gov/@@search?SearchableText=inmate+search.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Emporia

An arrest in Emporia can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: Kansas District Court Public Access Portal, the Kansas courts' statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at lyoncountyks.gov/160/County-Attorney, phone 620-341-3263).

Kansas is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: anyone can order a name-based criminal history record check online, through the Kansas 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 Emporia

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 Kansas Open Records Act the agency must answer within 3 business days, and it may charge staff time and copying.

• An arrest by the Emporia police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at emporiaks.gov/158/Police-Department (page title: Police Department | Emporia, KS), phone 620-343-4200, 518 Mechanic Street, Emporia, KS 66801, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
• An arrest by the Lyon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 620-341-3205.
• A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 620-341-3263, handles discovery for pending cases.
• Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lyoncountyks.gov (page title: LYON COUNTY, KANSAS 430 COMMERCIAL ST. EMPORIA, KANSAS 66801).
• Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.

The Lyon County guide covers every agency in the county: Lyon County arrest records.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Emporia each year?

Emporia reported 432 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Emporia?

Ask the Lyon County Sheriff's Office at 620-341-3205; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at lyoncountyks.gov/374/Detention-Center.

Where are people arrested in Emporia booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lyon County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Emporia?

The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation: anyone can order a name-based criminal history record check online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Kansas Open Records Act.

How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Emporia?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Emporia police for its own arrests, the Lyon County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Kansas Open Records Act the answer is due within 3 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lyoncountyks.gov.

Is this the official Emporia website?

No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.