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.
Ray County, Missouri, has about 23,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Ray 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 Ray 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: Ray County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Ray County
The Ray County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Ray County. It reported 87 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists nine cities in Ray County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Richmond, 5,939 residents: 237 arrests reported for 2023.
- Lawson, 2,523 residents: 82 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wood Heights, 746 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Orrick, 740 residents: 17 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hardin, 554 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2025.
- Crystal Lakes, 398 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Henrietta, 273 residents.
- Camden, 177 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Fleming, 114 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2020.
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 Excelsior Springs Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Ray County, so its arrests are not broken out for Ray County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Ray 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.
- Lawson: 82 for 2025, 69 for 2024, 50 for 2023, 84 for 2022, 21 for 2021 and 19 for 2020.
- Orrick: 17 for 2025, 37 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 1 for 2020 and 2 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Hardin: 4 for 2025, 0 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 20 for 2020 and 4 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Camden: 0 for 2025 and 0 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Wood Heights: 0 for 2025.
- Crystal Lakes: 0 for 2025 and 0 for 2024.
- Richmond: 237 for 2023, 653 for 2020 and 702 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Ray County Sheriff's Office: 87 for 2024, 129 for 2023 and 86 for 2022.
- Fleming: 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 103 arrests that year. The four of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 103 in 2025 against 106 in 2024, down 2.8 percent.
Ray County Sheriff's Office and Richmond reported only part of 2025 (6 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Ray County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Ray 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 120 people. 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 Ray County
For Ray 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 Ray 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 Ray County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Richmond, Lawson, Wood Heights, Orrick, Hardin, Crystal Lakes or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Ray County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for nine of the 12 cities in Ray County: Richmond, Lawson, Wood Heights, Orrick, Hardin, Crystal Lakes, Henrietta, Camden and Fleming. Excelsior Estates, Homestead and Elmira 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 Ray County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Ray County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Richmond (5,939)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Ray County each year?
Lawson reported 82 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 103 between them.
Where are people arrested in Ray County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Ray County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Ray 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 Ray County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Ray 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 Ray 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.