Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. 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.
Shannon County, Missouri, has about 7,300 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Shannon County Sheriff's Office and three 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 Shannon County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it.
This guide covers who makes arrests, arrest counts, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Shannon County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Shannon County
The Shannon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Shannon County. It reported 107 arrests for 2020, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists three cities in Shannon County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Winona, 988 residents: 17 arrests reported for 2025.
- Birch Tree, 562 residents: 6 arrests reported for 2020.
- Eminence, 531 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2019.
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 Summersville Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Shannon County, so its arrests are not broken out for Shannon County here.
Arrest Counts on File for Shannon County
The FBI publishes monthly arrest counts on the Crime Data Explorer. For Shannon County the counts on file are partial: Eminence, Winona, Birch Tree and Shannon County Sheriff's Office have sent some months but no full year since 2019, so no annual total is given here.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Shannon County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Shannon 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 12 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 14 beds, and it ran at 86 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 Shannon County Sheriff's Office at shannoncounty.gov/sheriff (page title: Sheriff | Shannon County, MO), phone (573) 226-3615, 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 Shannon County
For Shannon 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 Shannon 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 Shannon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (573) 226-3615.
- An arrest in Winona, Birch Tree or Eminence: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Shannon County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the three cities in Shannon County: Winona, Birch Tree and Eminence.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Shannon County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Shannon County?
Ask the Shannon County Sheriff's Office at (573) 226-3615; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at shannoncounty.gov/sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Shannon County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Shannon County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Shannon 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 Shannon County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Shannon 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 Shannon 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.