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.
Dent County, Missouri, has about 15,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Dent County Sheriff's Office and one city 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 Dent 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: Dent County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Dent County
The Dent County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Dent County. It reported 51 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Dent County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Salem, 4,726 residents: 61 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Bunker Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Dent County, so its arrests are not broken out for Dent County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Dent 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.
- Salem: 61 for 2024, 119 for 2023, 100 for 2022 and 80 for 2021.
- Dent County Sheriff's Office: 51 for 2025, 47 for 2024, 78 for 2023, 131 for 2022, 155 for 2021 and 187 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 108 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 108 in 2024 against 197 in 2023, down 45 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Dent County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Dent 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 26 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 16 beds, and it ran at 162 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 Dent County
For Dent 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 Dent 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 Dent County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Salem: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Dent County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for Salem, the one city in Dent County.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Dent County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Dent County each year?
Salem reported 61 arrests to the FBI for 2024, and the two agencies with every month of 2024 on file reported 108 between them.
Where are people arrested in Dent County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Dent County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Dent 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 Dent County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Dent 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 Dent 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.