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 2024. 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 September 26, 2026.
Cottleville, Missouri, in St. Charles County, has about 6,400 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the St. Charles County 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: Cottleville public records, St. Charles County arrest records, Missouri arrest records and Missouri inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Cottleville
The FBI lists Cottleville with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Cottleville Police Department. It reported 77 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year. 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 St. Charles County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 1,032 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in St. Charles County: St. Charles Regional Drug Task Force (other); St. Charles Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Cottleville 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.
- Cottleville: 77 for 2024, 43 for 2023, 91 for 2020 and 161 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Cottleville's 77 arrests in 2024 were up 79 percent from 43 in 2023.
Across St. Charles County, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 7,625 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Cottleville Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Cottleville 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 450 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 528 beds, and it ran at 84 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Missouri Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Cottleville
Whether someone was arrested in Cottleville, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the St. Charles County Circuit Court, kept by the Circuit Clerk, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at stcharlescitymo.gov/839/Prosecuting-Attorney, phone (636) 940-4636).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at stcharlescitymo.gov/176/Municipal-Courts (page title: Municipal Court | St. Charles, MO), phone (636) 949-3378, belongs to a lower court, not to the St. Charles County Circuit Court.
Statewide, Case.net is the Missouri courts' free statewide case search.
Missouri is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the open record search on the MACHS site lets anyone check convictions by name, through the Missouri State Highway Patrol Criminal Justice Information Services Division. 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 Cottleville
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Missouri Sunshine Law the agency must answer within 3 business days, and it may charge research time and copying.
- An arrest by the Cottleville police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at cityofcottleville.com/police-department-employment (page title: Police Department & Employment | City of Cottleville), phone 636-939-9966, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the St. Charles County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, (636) 940-4636, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the St. Charles County Circuit Court it is kept by the Circuit Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at stcharlescitymo.gov/176/Municipal-Courts, phone (636) 949-3378, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The St. Charles County guide covers every agency in the county: St. Charles County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Cottleville each year?
Cottleville reported 77 arrests to the FBI for 2024, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Cottleville booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the St. Charles County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Cottleville?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Missouri State Highway Patrol Criminal Justice Information Services Division: the open record search on the MACHS site lets anyone check convictions by name. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Cottleville?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Cottleville police for its own arrests, the St. Charles County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Missouri Sunshine Law the answer is due within 3 business days.
Is this the official Cottleville 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.