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.
Dunklin County, Missouri, has about 27,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Dunklin County Sheriff's Office and nine 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 Dunklin 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: Dunklin County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Dunklin County
The Dunklin County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Dunklin County. It reported 333 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists nine cities in Dunklin County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Kennett, 10,137 residents: 526 arrests reported for 2025.
- Malden, 3,525 residents: 211 arrests reported for 2024.
- Senath, 1,514 residents: 26 arrests reported for 2020.
- Campbell, 1,513 residents: 28 arrests reported for 2025.
- Clarkton, 951 residents.
- Holcomb, 594 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2023.
- Cardwell, 534 residents: 1,177 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hornersville, 505 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2025.
- Arbyrd, 389 residents: 8 arrests reported for 2021.
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 Dunklin 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.
- Cardwell: 1,177 for 2025, 1,175 for 2024, 1,176 for 2023, 1,170 for 2022, 1,145 for 2021 and 1,167 for 2020.
- Kennett: 526 for 2025, 736 for 2024, 822 for 2023, 481 for 2022, 579 for 2021 and 395 for 2020.
- Dunklin County Sheriff's Office: 333 for 2025, 191 for 2024 and 188 for 2023.
- Campbell: 28 for 2025, 23 for 2024, 18 for 2023, 2 for 2022, 3 for 2021 and 119 for 2020.
- Hornersville: 2 for 2025, 4 for 2023, 4 for 2021, 50 for 2020 and 10 for 2019; 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Malden: 211 for 2024, 302 for 2022 and 321 for 2021; 2023 is missing months.
- Senath: 26 for 2020 and 40 for 2019.
- Arbyrd: 8 for 2021 and 11 for 2020.
- Holcomb: 4 for 2023 and 0 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,066 arrests that year. The four of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,064 in 2025 against 2,125 in 2024, down 2.9 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,257 arrests, against 1,227 in the same months of 2025.
Malden and Arbyrd reported only part of 2025 (11 months and 8 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Dunklin County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Dunklin 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 2022 the jail held about 200 people, up from about 190 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2022 was 199 beds, and it ran at 102 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 Dunklin County Sheriff's Office at dunklincounty.gov/dunklin-county-sheriffs-office (page title: Dunklin County Sheriff’s Office | Dunklin County), phone 573-888-2424, 1175 Floyd Street Kennett, MO 63857, Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., 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 Dunklin County
Whether someone was arrested in Dunklin 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 dunklincounty.gov/dunklin-county-prosecuting-attorney, phone 573-888-6676).
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 Dunklin 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 Dunklin County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 573-888-2424.
- An arrest in Kennett, Malden, Senath, Campbell, Clarkton, Holcomb or another of the cities listed above: 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, 573-888-6676, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Dunklin County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for nine of the ten cities in Dunklin County: Kennett, Malden, Senath, Campbell, Clarkton, Holcomb, Cardwell, Hornersville and Arbyrd. Rives 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 Dunklin County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Dunklin County each year?
Cardwell reported 1,177 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,066 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Dunklin County?
Ask the Dunklin County Sheriff's Office at 573-888-2424; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at dunklincounty.gov.
Where are people arrested in Dunklin County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Dunklin County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Dunklin 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 Dunklin County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Dunklin 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 Dunklin 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.