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.
Buchanan County, Missouri, has about 84,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and two campus, state or other 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 Buchanan 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: Buchanan County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Buchanan County
The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Buchanan County. It reported 268 arrests for 2025.
One city in Buchanan County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- St. Joseph, 71,098 residents: 3,039 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 Gower Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Buchanan County, so its arrests are not broken out for Buchanan County here.
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 Each Agency Reports in Buchanan County
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them 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.
- Buchanan County Sheriff's Office: 268 for 2025, 184 for 2024, 275 for 2023, 80 for 2021, 111 for 2020 and 113 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,307 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 268 in 2025 against 184 in 2024, up 46 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,131 arrests, against 1,861 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Buchanan County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Buchanan 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 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 Buchanan County
Whether someone was arrested in Buchanan County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in St. Joseph: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by Missouri Western State University or Northwest Missouri Drug Task Force: the records office of the agency involved.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Buchanan County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the six cities in Buchanan County: St. Joseph. Agency, De Kalb, Easton, Rushville and Lewis and Clark Village 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 Buchanan County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Buchanan County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- St. Joseph (71,098)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Buchanan County each year?
St. Joseph reported 3,039 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,307 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Buchanan County?
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 Buchanan County 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Buchanan 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 Buchanan 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.