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. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site on September 23, 2026.
Bates County, Missouri, has about 16,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Bates County Sheriff's Office and three 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 Bates 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: Bates County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Bates County
The Bates County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Bates County. It reported 78 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists three cities in Bates County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Butler, 4,283 residents: 140 arrests reported for 2025.
- Adrian, 1,775 residents: 16 arrests reported for 2025.
- Rich Hill, 1,257 residents: 11 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.
The Drexel Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Bates County, so its arrests are not broken out for Bates County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Bates 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.
- Butler: 140 for 2025, 198 for 2024, 116 for 2023, 73 for 2022, 93 for 2021 and 68 for 2020.
- Bates County Sheriff's Office: 78 for 2025, 96 for 2024, 80 for 2023, 378 for 2020 and 678 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Adrian: 16 for 2025, 9 for 2024, 7 for 2023, 6 for 2022, 10 for 2021 and 8 for 2020.
- Rich Hill: 11 for 2025, 1 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 0 for 2022 and 0 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 245 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 245 in 2025 against 304 in 2024, down 19 percent.
Through July 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 126 arrests, against 160 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bates County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Bates County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2021 the jail held about 11 people, down from about 130 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 106 beds, and it ran at 124 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 Bates County Sheriff's Office at batescountysheriff.gov/inmate-roster (page title: Inmate Roster | Bates County Sheriff's Office), 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 Bates County
An arrest in Bates County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Bates County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Bates 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 batescounty.net/bates-county-procecuting-attorneys-office, phone (660) 386-7776).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at batescounty.net/bates-county-circuit-court (page title: Bates County Circuit Court | Bates County Courthouse), phone 660-386-7776, belongs to a lower court, not to the Bates 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 Bates 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 Bates County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Butler, Adrian or Rich Hill: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, (660) 386-7776, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Bates County Circuit Court it is kept by the Circuit Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at batescounty.net/bates-county-circuit-court, phone 660-386-7776, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Bates County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for three of the ten cities in Bates County: Butler, Adrian and Rich Hill. Hume, Amsterdam, Rockville, Amoret, Foster, Merwin and Passaic 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 Bates County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bates County each year?
Butler reported 140 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 245 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bates County?
Look on the custody page of the Bates County Sheriff's Office at batescountysheriff.gov/inmate-roster. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Bates County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Bates County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bates 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 Bates County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bates 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 Bates 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.