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.
Perry County, Missouri, has about 19,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Perry 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 Perry 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: Perry County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Perry County
The Perry County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Perry County. It reported 111 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Perry County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Perryville, 8,554 residents: 174 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 Perry 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.
- Perryville: 174 for 2025, 130 for 2024, 180 for 2022, 257 for 2021, 294 for 2020 and 252 for 2019; 2023 is missing months.
- Perry County Sheriff's Office: 111 for 2025, 145 for 2023, 199 for 2022, 291 for 2021, 407 for 2020 and 880 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 285 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 174 in 2025 against 130 in 2024, up 34 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 139 arrests, against 127 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Perry County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Perry 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 33 people, down from about 34 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 40 beds, and it ran at 85 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 Perry County Sheriff's Office at isoms.perrycountysheriff.net/portal/Jail (page title: Inmates | ISOMS Portal), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Missouri Department of Corrections lists its inmates at web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Perry County
Whether someone was arrested in Perry 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 perrycountymo.us/63/Prosecuting-Attorney, phone 573-605-1915).
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 Perry 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 Perry County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Perryville: 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, 573-605-1915, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Perry County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the four cities in Perry County: Perryville. Altenburg, Frohna and Longtown 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 Perry County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Perry County each year?
Perryville reported 174 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 285 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Perry County?
Ask the Perry County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at isoms.perrycountysheriff.net/portal/Jail.
Where are people arrested in Perry County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Perry County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Perry 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 Perry County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Perry 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 Perry 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.