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 September 30, 2026.
Bossier Parish, Louisiana, has about 131,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office, four city agencies and three campus agencies. An arrest leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the parish jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the District Court for Bossier Parish. 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: Bossier Parish public records, Louisiana arrest records, Louisiana inmate search and Louisiana criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Bossier Parish
The Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Bossier Parish. It reported 1,994 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside four of the parish's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Bossier City, 63,218 residents: 3,294 arrests reported for 2025.
- Haughton, 4,574 residents: 108 arrests reported for 2022.
- Benton, 2,099 residents: 46 arrests reported for 2020.
- Plain Dealing, 876 residents: 22 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.
The Shreveport Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Bossier Parish, so its arrests are not broken out for Bossier Parish here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Bossier Parish: Louisiana State University at Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, Louisiana State University at Shreveport and Southern University and A&M College at Shreveport (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Bossier Parish
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.
- Bossier City: 3,294 for 2025, 3,242 for 2024, 3,307 for 2023, 3,730 for 2022, 3,776 for 2021 and 3,661 for 2020.
- Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office: 1,994 for 2025, 1,811 for 2024, 1,905 for 2023, 1,938 for 2022, 1,645 for 2021 and 1,566 for 2020.
- Plain Dealing: 22 for 2025, 20 for 2024, 18 for 2023 and 3 for 2021; 2022 is missing months.
- Haughton: 108 for 2022, 195 for 2020 and 269 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Benton: 46 for 2020.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,310 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,310 in 2025 against 5,073 in 2024, up 4.7 percent.
Through July 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 3,216 arrests, against 3,204 in the same months of 2025.
Haughton reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bossier Parish Are Held
The parish jail is where a person arrested in Bossier Parish 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 2023 the jail held about 1,120 people, down from about 1,220 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 1,557 beds, and it ran at 72 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 Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office at bossiersheriff.com/inmateLookup (page title: Inmate Lookup | Bossier Parish LA), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
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 Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, whose inmate locator is at doc.la.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Bossier Parish
Whether someone was arrested in Bossier Parish, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the parish jail; the case index of the District Court for Bossier Parish, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at bossierclerk.com); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at bossierparishla.gov/parish-government-offices/district-attorney, phone 318-965-3714).
Louisiana does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court's own case index is the public record of an arrest that led to a charge.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Bossier Parish
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Louisiana Public Records Law the agency must answer within 3 business days when the record is not immediately available, and it may charge a reasonable fee for copies.
- An arrest by the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Bossier City, Haughton, Benton or Plain Dealing: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by Louisiana State University at Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, Louisiana State University at Shreveport or Southern University and A&M College at Shreveport: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 318-965-3714, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the District Court for Bossier Parish, through the court records page at bossierclerk.com.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Cities in Bossier Parish: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the four cities in Bossier Parish: Bossier City, Haughton, Benton and Plain Dealing.
Wherever in the parish the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the parish jail and the case goes to the District Court for Bossier Parish.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bossier Parish each year?
Bossier City reported 3,294 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,310 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bossier Parish?
Look on the custody page of the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office at bossiersheriff.com/inmateLookup. It covers people booked into the parish jail.
Where are people arrested in Bossier Parish booked?
Those kept in custody go to the parish jail, run by the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bossier Parish?
The court files of criminal cases in the District Court for Bossier Parish are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Louisiana Public Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Bossier Parish?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Louisiana Public Records Law the answer is due within 3 business days when the record is not immediately available.
Is this the official Bossier Parish website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official parish, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.