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 on September 23, 2026.
Polk County, Missouri, has about 33,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Polk County Sheriff's Office and five 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 Polk 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: Polk County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Polk County
The Polk County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Polk County. It reported 104 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists five cities in Polk County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Bolivar, 11,549 residents: 183 arrests reported for 2025.
- Humansville, 939 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Pleasant Hope, 692 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Fair Play, 450 residents: 17 arrests reported for 2023.
- Morrisville, 398 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 Polk 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.
- Bolivar: 183 for 2025, 192 for 2023, 177 for 2022, 276 for 2021, 323 for 2020 and 339 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Polk County Sheriff's Office: 104 for 2025, 144 for 2024, 123 for 2023, 129 for 2022, 107 for 2021 and 308 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Humansville: 0 for 2025, 7 for 2024, 1 for 2023, 0 for 2022 and 0 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Morrisville: 0 for 2025 and 3 for 2024.
- Pleasant Hope: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024 and 68 for 2022; 2023 is missing months.
- Fair Play: 17 for 2023 and 7 for 2022.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 287 arrests that year. The four of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 104 in 2025 against 154 in 2024, down 32 percent.
Through June 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 151 arrests, against 139 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Polk County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Polk 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 2019 the jail held about 45 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 43 beds, and it ran at 105 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Polk County
Whether someone was arrested in Polk County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Polk County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at pro.polkcountyclerk.net/PRO); the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at polkcountymo.gov/prosecuting-attorney, phone (417) 326-5756).
Statewide, Case.net is the Missouri courts' free statewide case search.
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 Polk 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 Polk County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Bolivar, Humansville, Pleasant Hope, Fair Play or Morrisville: 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, (417) 326-5756, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Polk County Circuit Court, through the court records page at pro.polkcountyclerk.net/PRO.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The other Polk County guides go further: warrants, criminal records, court records, police reports, traffic tickets, DUI, divorce records and property records.
Cities in Polk County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the eight cities in Polk County: Bolivar, Humansville, Pleasant Hope, Fair Play and Morrisville. Halfway, Flemington and Aldrich 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 Polk County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Polk County each year?
Bolivar reported 183 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 287 between them.
Where are people arrested in Polk County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Polk County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Polk 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 Polk County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Polk 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 Polk 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.