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 between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Benton County, Missouri, has about 21,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Benton County Sheriff's Office, three city agencies and one other agency. 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 Benton 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: Benton County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Benton County
The Benton County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Benton County. It reported 97 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists three cities in Benton County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Warsaw, 2,337 residents: 67 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lincoln, 1,203 residents: 29 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cole Camp, 1,172 residents: 1 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 FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Benton County: the Cole Camp School District (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Benton 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.
- Warsaw: 67 for 2025, 56 for 2024, 63 for 2023 and 149 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Lincoln: 29 for 2025, 23 for 2024, 35 for 2023, 41 for 2022, 57 for 2021 and 59 for 2020.
- Cole Camp: 1 for 2025, 0 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 0 for 2022, 0 for 2021 and 68 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Benton County Sheriff's Office: 97 for 2023, 230 for 2022, 242 for 2021, 271 for 2020 and 194 for 2019.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 97 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 97 in 2025 against 79 in 2024, up 23 percent.
Through March 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 22 arrests, against 29 in the same months of 2025.
Benton County Sheriff's Office reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Benton County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Benton 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 28 people, down from about 30 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 23 beds, and it ran at 130 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 Benton County Sheriff's Office at bentoncountysheriffmo.org/inmate-roster/filters/current/booking_tim... (page title: Inmate Roster | Benton County MO Sheriff | Sort Booking Time | Descending | Page 1), 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 Benton County
Whether someone was arrested in Benton County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Benton 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; the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at bentoncomo.com/offices/prosecattorney.html, phone (660) 438-5022).
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 Benton County
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 Benton County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Warsaw, Lincoln or Cole Camp: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Cole Camp School District: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, (660) 438-5022, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Benton County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for three of the four cities in Benton County: Warsaw, Lincoln and Cole Camp. Ionia has 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 Benton County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Benton County each year?
Warsaw reported 67 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 97 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Benton County?
Look on the custody page of the Benton County Sheriff's Office at bentoncountysheriffmo.org. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Benton County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Benton County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Benton 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 Benton County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Benton 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 Benton 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.