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 24, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Spencer County, Kentucky, has about 21,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Spencer County Sheriff's Office and one city agency. 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 Commonwealth's Attorney files charges, a case in the Spencer Circuit 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: Spencer County public records, Kentucky arrest records, Kentucky inmate search and Kentucky criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Spencer County
The Spencer County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Spencer County. It reported 457 arrests for 2025.
One city in Spencer County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Taylorsville, 1,317 residents: 33 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 Spencer 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.
- Spencer County Sheriff's Office: 457 for 2025, 471 for 2024, 388 for 2023, 301 for 2022 and 204 for 2021.
- Taylorsville: 33 for 2025, 42 for 2024, 40 for 2023, 84 for 2022, 77 for 2021 and 88 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 490 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 490 in 2025 against 513 in 2024, down 4.5 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 170 arrests, against 289 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Spencer County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Spencer 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 2024 the jail held about 62 people, down from about 68 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 69 beds, and it ran at 90 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 Spencer County Sheriff's Office at spencercountyclerk.com/kentucky/spencer-county (page title: Spencer County Sheriff, KY, Jail Inmate Search, Recent Arrests), 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 Kentucky Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at kool.corrections.ky.gov/.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Spencer County
Whether someone was arrested in Spencer County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Spencer County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Spencer 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/Spencer.aspx, phone 502-477-3220); the Commonwealth's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at spencercountyky.gov/services/county_attorney.php, phone (502) 477-3225).
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 Spencer 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 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 Spencer County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Taylorsville: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Commonwealth's Attorney, (502) 477-3225, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Spencer Circuit Court, through the court records page at kycourts.gov, phone 502-477-3220.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Spencer County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for Taylorsville, the one city in Spencer County.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Spencer Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Spencer County each year?
The Spencer County Sheriff's Office reported 457 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 490 between them.
Where are people arrested in Spencer County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Spencer County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Spencer County?
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 Spencer County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Spencer County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Kentucky Open Records Act the answer is due within 5 business days.
Is this the official Spencer 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.