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.
St. Joseph, Missouri, in Buchanan County, has about 71,000 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 Buchanan 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: St. Joseph public records, Buchanan County arrest records, Missouri arrest records and Missouri inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in St. Joseph
The FBI lists St. Joseph with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as St. Joseph Police Department. It reported 3,039 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 Buchanan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 268 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Buchanan County: Missouri Western State University (campus police); Northwest Missouri Drug Task Force (other).
How Many Arrests St. Joseph 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.
- St. Joseph: 3,039 for 2025, 2,153 for 2024, 3,245 for 2023, 3,200 for 2022, 3,738 for 2021 and 2,564 for 2020.
St. Joseph's 3,039 arrests in 2025 were up 41 percent from 2,153 in 2024.
Through July 2026, St. Joseph reported 1,886 arrests, against 1,713 in the same months of 2025.
Across Buchanan County, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,307 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in St. Joseph Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in St. Joseph 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 2021 the jail held about 180 people, down from about 180 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 245 beds, and it ran at 75 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 Buchanan County Sheriff's Office at inmate.co.buchanan.mo.us/NewWorld.InmateInquiry/buchananco?Page=1 (page title: Inmate Search), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 Missouri Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in St. Joseph
An arrest in St. Joseph can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; Case.net, the Missouri courts' free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed.
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 St. Joseph
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 St. Joseph police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at stjosephmo.gov/595/Record-Requests (page title: Records Unit | St. Joseph, MO), phone 816-271-4705, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Buchanan County guide covers every agency in the county: Buchanan County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in St. Joseph each year?
St. Joseph reported 3,039 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in St. Joseph?
Look on the custody page of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office at inmate.co.buchanan.mo.us. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in St. Joseph booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in St. Joseph?
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 St. Joseph?
From the agency that made the arrest: the St. Joseph police for its own arrests, the Buchanan 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 St. Joseph 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.