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 on September 25, 2026.
West Plains, Missouri, in Howell County, has about 13,000 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 Howell 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: West Plains public records, Howell County arrest records, Missouri arrest records and Missouri inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in West Plains
The FBI lists West Plains with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as West Plains Police Department. It reported 327 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 Howell County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 242 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests West Plains 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.
- West Plains: 327 for 2025, 469 for 2024, 420 for 2023, 243 for 2021, 463 for 2020 and 841 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
West Plains's 327 arrests in 2025 were down 30 percent from 469 in 2024.
Through August 2026, West Plains reported 215 arrests, against 234 in the same months of 2025.
Across Howell County, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 655 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in West Plains Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in West Plains 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 3 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 12 beds, and it ran at 25 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Missouri Department of Corrections lists its inmates at web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in West Plains
For West Plains the place to look is 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 West Plains
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 West Plains police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at westplains.gov/departments/emergency-services/police/meet-the-offic... (page title: Records Division | City of West Plains), phone 417-257-2194, 1912 Holiday Lane Attn: Custodian of Records West Plains, MO 65775, Monday through Thursday 6am to 4pm., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Howell County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Howell County guide covers every agency in the county: Howell County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in West Plains each year?
West Plains reported 327 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in West Plains booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Howell County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in West Plains?
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 West Plains?
From the agency that made the arrest: the West Plains police for its own arrests, the Howell 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 West Plains 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.