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.
Barry County, Missouri, has about 36,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Barry County Sheriff's Office and seven city 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Barry County Circuit 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: Barry County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Barry County
The Barry County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Barry County. It reported 125 arrests for 2021, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists seven cities in Barry County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Monett, 10,108 residents: 456 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cassville, 3,247 residents: 267 arrests reported for 2023.
- Purdy, 1,052 residents: 27 arrests reported for 2019.
- Seligman, 917 residents: 33 arrests reported for 2024.
- Exeter, 756 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wheaton, 683 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Washburn, 415 residents: 0 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Barry 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.
- Monett: 456 for 2025, 448 for 2023, 411 for 2022, 432 for 2021, 623 for 2020 and 724 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Cassville: 267 for 2023, 276 for 2022, 283 for 2021, 775 for 2020 and 918 for 2019.
- Seligman: 33 for 2024, 51 for 2023, 38 for 2022, 76 for 2021, 149 for 2020 and 87 for 2019.
- Washburn: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 3 for 2022, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Exeter: 0 for 2025, 4 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Barry County Sheriff's Office: 125 for 2021, 145 for 2020 and 308 for 2019.
- Purdy: 27 for 2019.
- Wheaton: 0 for 2025, 2 for 2024, 2 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2023 on file reported 766 arrests that year. The four of them with both 2023 and 2022 complete reported 766 in 2023 against 728 in 2022, up 5.2 percent.
Wheaton and Barry County Sheriff's Office reported only part of 2023 (1 month and 8 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Barry County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Barry 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 2023 the jail held about 20 people, down from about 69 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 46 beds, and it ran at 43 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 Barry County
For Barry County 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 Barry County
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 Barry County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Monett, Cassville, Purdy, Seligman, Exeter, Wheaton or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Barry County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the 11 cities in Barry County: Monett, Cassville, Purdy, Seligman, Exeter, Wheaton and Washburn. Butterfield, Emerald Beach, Chain-O-Lakes and Arrow Point have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Barry County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Barry County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Monett (10,108)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Barry County each year?
Monett reported 456 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2023, the latest year most of the agencies in Barry County sent in full, the five with every month on file reported 766 between them.
Where are people arrested in Barry County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Barry County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Barry County?
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 Barry County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Barry County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Missouri Sunshine Law the answer is due within 3 business days.
Is this the official Barry 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.