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.
Norfolk County, Massachusetts, has about 741,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by 28 city agencies and seven campus, state or other agencies. 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 Norfolk County Superior 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: Norfolk County public records, Massachusetts arrest records, Massachusetts inmate search and Massachusetts criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Norfolk County
The FBI lists five cities in Norfolk County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Quincy, 103,434 residents: 920 arrests reported for 2025.
- Weymouth Town, 60,159 residents: 872 arrests reported for 2025.
- Braintree Town, 39,134 residents: 510 arrests reported for 2025.
- Randolph Town, 35,114 residents: 254 arrests reported for 2025.
- Franklin Town, 33,742 residents: 85 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 FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Norfolk County: Wellesley College, Massachusetts Bay Community College, Curry College, Babson College and one more (campus police); the Norfolk County State Police (state police); the Norfolk County Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (state agency).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Norfolk 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.
- Quincy: 920 for 2025, 961 for 2024, 769 for 2023, 649 for 2022, 612 for 2021 and 568 for 2020.
- Weymouth Town: 872 for 2025, 557 for 2023, 582 for 2021, 664 for 2020 and 859 for 2019; 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Stoughton: 597 for 2025, 587 for 2024, 562 for 2023, 571 for 2022, 465 for 2021 and 518 for 2020.
- Braintree Town: 510 for 2025, 436 for 2024, 566 for 2023 and 503 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Norwood: 413 for 2025, 415 for 2024, 404 for 2023, 408 for 2022, 319 for 2021 and 288 for 2020.
- Bellingham: 412 for 2025, 363 for 2024, 291 for 2023, 229 for 2022, 209 for 2021 and 279 for 2020.
- Brookline: 266 for 2025, 190 for 2024, 254 for 2023, 166 for 2022, 138 for 2021 and 266 for 2020.
- Randolph Town: 254 for 2025, 245 for 2024, 234 for 2023, 242 for 2022, 179 for 2021 and 205 for 2020.
- Canton: 235 for 2025, 206 for 2024, 198 for 2023, 251 for 2022, 236 for 2021 and 220 for 2020.
- Foxborough: 229 for 2025, 326 for 2024, 442 for 2023, 252 for 2022, 201 for 2021 and 197 for 2020.
- Westwood: 208 for 2025, 127 for 2023, 130 for 2022, 86 for 2021, 97 for 2020 and 127 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Dedham: 198 for 2025, 211 for 2024, 195 for 2023, 133 for 2022 and 29 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the 28 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,189 arrests that year. The 26 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,109 in 2025 against 4,902 in 2024, up 4.2 percent.
Through March 2026, the 21 agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,130 arrests, against 1,187 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Norfolk County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Norfolk 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 2025 the jail held about 330 people, down from about 490 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 302 beds, and it ran at 113 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 sheriff's office at norfolksheriffsoffice.com (page title: Norfolk Jail Roster Lookup, VA, Inmate Search), 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 Massachusetts Department of Correction, whose inmate locator is at mass.gov/how-to/find-someone-housed-in-a-massachusetts-prison.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Norfolk County
Whether someone was arrested in Norfolk County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the sheriff's office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Norfolk County Superior Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at mass.gov/locations/norfolk-county-superior-court, phone (781) 326-1600); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at nfkda.com/prosecution.html).
Statewide, masscourts.org is the Massachusetts Trial Court's free online case search.
Massachusetts is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: open access iCORI lets anyone request limited conviction information by name, for $25 a search, through the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services. 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 Norfolk 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 Massachusetts Public Records Law the agency must answer within 10 business days, and it may charge staff time after the first four hours for towns and two for the state, plus copying.
- An arrest in Quincy, Weymouth Town, Braintree Town, Randolph Town or Franklin Town: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by Wellesley College, the Norfolk County State Police or Massachusetts Bay Community College: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Norfolk County Superior Court, through the court records page at mass.gov, phone (781) 326-1600.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at norfolkmass.gov (page title: Welcome to Town of Norfolk, MA).
- Your own statewide record: a personal CORI request, free once a year online.
Cities in Norfolk County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the five cities in Norfolk County: Quincy, Weymouth Town, Braintree Town, Randolph Town and Franklin Town. The FBI's list also carries the Sharon Police Department, the Plainville Police Department, the Norwood Police Department and 20 more as city agencies in Norfolk County; Sharon, Plainville, Norwood and 20 more are not among the cities above.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Norfolk County Superior Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Norfolk County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Quincy (103,434)
- Braintree Town (39,134)
- Randolph Town (35,114)
- Franklin Town (33,742)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Norfolk County each year?
Quincy reported 920 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 28 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 6,189 between them.
Where are people arrested in Norfolk County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Norfolk County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services: open access iCORI lets anyone request limited conviction information by name, for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Massachusetts Public Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Norfolk County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the sheriff's office or the city's police. Under the Massachusetts Public Records Law the answer is due within 10 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at norfolkmass.gov.
Is this the official Norfolk 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.