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.
Butler County, Missouri, has about 42,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Butler County Sheriff's Office and two 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 Butler 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: Butler County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Butler County
The Butler County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Butler County. It reported 352 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside two of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Poplar Bluff, 16,177 residents: 951 arrests reported for 2025.
- Qulin, 468 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 Butler 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.
- Poplar Bluff: 951 for 2025, 829 for 2024, 831 for 2023, 795 for 2022, 765 for 2021 and 1,326 for 2020.
- Butler County Sheriff's Office: 352 for 2025, 302 for 2024, 199 for 2023, 187 for 2022, 175 for 2021 and 222 for 2020.
- Qulin: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 11 for 2022, 4 for 2021 and 0 for 2020.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,303 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,303 in 2025 against 1,131 in 2024, up 15 percent.
Through March 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 311 arrests, against 288 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Butler County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Butler 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 2019 the jail held about 15 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 148 beds, and it ran at 10 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Butler County Sheriff's Office at butlersheriff.org/jail-facilities (page title: Jail Facilities | Butler County Sheriff’s Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Butler County
Whether someone was arrested in Butler County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: 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 butlercountymo.com/prosecuting-attorney, phone 573-686-8060).
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 Butler 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 Butler County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Poplar Bluff or Qulin: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 573-686-8060, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Butler County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the four cities in Butler County: Poplar Bluff and Qulin. Neelyville and Fisk 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 Butler County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Butler County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Poplar Bluff (16,177)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Butler County each year?
Poplar Bluff reported 951 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,303 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Butler County?
Ask the Butler County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at butlersheriff.org/jail-facilities.
Where are people arrested in Butler County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Butler County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Butler 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 Butler County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Butler 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 Butler 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.