Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 24, 2026 and October 9, 2026.
Shively, Kentucky, in Jefferson County, has about 16,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the Commonwealth's Attorney files charges, a case in the Jefferson Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Shively public records, Jefferson County arrest records, Kentucky arrest records and Kentucky inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Shively
The FBI lists Shively with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Shively Police Department. It reported 442 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 Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 1,070 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Jefferson County: the Jefferson County School District, Norfolk Southern Railway, the Louisville Regional Airport Authority and the Louisville Parks Police (other); the University of Louisville (campus police); Kentucky Fairgrounds Security and Alcohol Beverage Control's Investigative Division (state agency).
How Many Arrests Shively Reports
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.
- Shively: 442 for 2025, 492 for 2024, 452 for 2023, 424 for 2022, 490 for 2021 and 393 for 2020.
Shively's 442 arrests in 2025 were down 10 percent from 492 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Shively reported 346 arrests, against 304 in the same months of 2025.
Across Jefferson County, the 18 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 18,404 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Shively Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Shively 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.
So far in 2026 the jail has held about 1,560 people on an average day, down from about 2,260 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,351 beds, and it is running at 115 percent of it. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at louisvilleky.gov/government/sheriffs-office/services/sheriffs-offic... (page title: Sheriff's Office: Property Taxes and a whole lot more), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Kentucky Department of Corrections lists its inmates at kool.corrections.ky.gov/.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Shively
An arrest in Shively can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Jefferson Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at kycourts.gov/Courts/County-Information/Pages/Jefferson.aspx); the Commonwealth's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at louisvilleprosecutor.com, phone (502) 595-2300).
Kentucky is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Administrative Office of the Courts, not the state police, sells name-based criminal record reports to the public, for $25 a search, through the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts. 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 Shively
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 Kentucky Open Records Act the agency must answer within 5 business days, and it may charge the actual cost of copying, 10 cents a page for standard copies.
- An arrest by the Shively police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at police.shivelyky.gov (page title: Shively Police Department | Colonel Andre' Bottoms Sr), phone 502-448-6181, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Commonwealth's Attorney, (502) 595-2300, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Jefferson Circuit Court, through the court records page at kycourts.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at jeffersonpva.ky.gov/open-records-requests (page title: OPEN RECORDS REQUESTS | Jefferson County PVA).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Jefferson County guide covers every agency in the county: Jefferson County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Shively each year?
Shively reported 442 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Shively 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 Shively?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts: the Administrative Office of the Courts, not the state police, sells name-based criminal record reports to the public, for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Kentucky Open Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Shively?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Shively police for its own arrests, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Kentucky Open Records Act the answer is due within 5 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at jeffersonpva.ky.gov/open-records-requests.
Is this the official Shively 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.