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 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in Butler 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Butler 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: Poplar Bluff public records, Butler County arrest records, Missouri arrest records and Missouri inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Poplar Bluff
The FBI lists Poplar Bluff with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Poplar Bluff Police Department. It reported 951 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 Butler County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 352 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Poplar Bluff 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.
- Poplar Bluff: 951 for 2025, 829 for 2024, 831 for 2023, 795 for 2022, 765 for 2021 and 1,326 for 2020.
Poplar Bluff's 951 arrests in 2025 were up 15 percent from 829 in 2024.
Through March 2026, Poplar Bluff reported 219 arrests, against 213 in the same months of 2025.
Across Butler County, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,303 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Poplar Bluff Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Poplar Bluff 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 15 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 148 beds, and it ran at 10 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Butler County Sheriff's Office at butlersheriff.org/jail-facilities (page title: Jail Facilities | Butler County Sheriff’s Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Poplar Bluff
An arrest in Poplar Bluff can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: Case.net, the Missouri courts' free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at butlercountymo.com/prosecuting-attorney, phone 573-686-8060).
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 Poplar Bluff
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 Poplar Bluff police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at poplarbluff-mo.gov/m/directory/department?did=18 (page title: Staff Directory, Police Department), phone 573-686-8661, 8661 Physical Address 1111 Poplar Street Poplar Bluff, MO 63901, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Butler County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 573-686-8060, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Butler County guide covers every agency in the county: Butler County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Poplar Bluff each year?
Poplar Bluff reported 951 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Poplar Bluff?
Ask the Butler County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at butlersheriff.org/jail-facilities.
Where are people arrested in Poplar Bluff booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Butler County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Poplar Bluff?
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 Poplar Bluff?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Poplar Bluff police for its own arrests, the Butler 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 Poplar Bluff 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.