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 30, 2026 and October 4, 2026.
Macon County, Missouri, has about 15,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Macon 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 Macon 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: Macon County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Macon County
The Macon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Macon County. It reported 18 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Macon County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Macon, 5,509 residents: 117 arrests reported for 2025.
- La Plata, 1,244 residents: 4 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Macon 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.
- Macon: 117 for 2025, 90 for 2023, 118 for 2022, 239 for 2020 and 356 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Macon County Sheriff's Office: 18 for 2025, 47 for 2024, 94 for 2023, 85 for 2022, 38 for 2021 and 53 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- La Plata: 4 for 2024 and 52 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 135 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 18 in 2025 against 47 in 2024, down 62 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 79 arrests, against 65 in the same months of 2025.
La Plata reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Macon County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Macon 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 33 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 46 beds, and it ran at 72 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 Macon County Sheriff's Office at sheriff-macon-il.us/corrections (page title: Corrections | Macon County Sheriff), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 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 Macon County
Whether someone was arrested in Macon 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 maconcountymo.com/prosecutor, phone 660-385-2175).
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 Macon 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 Macon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Macon or La Plata: 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, 660-385-2175, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Macon County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the nine cities in Macon County: Macon and La Plata. Bevier, Atlanta, Callao, New Cambria, Elmer, Ethel and South Gifford 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 Macon County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Macon County each year?
Macon reported 117 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 135 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Macon County?
Ask the Macon County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at sheriff-macon-il.us/corrections.
Where are people arrested in Macon County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Macon County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Macon 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 Macon County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Macon 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 Macon 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.