SearchSystems Editorial

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 9, 2026.

About this guide

St. Louis County, Missouri, has about 993,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by one city agency and five campus, state or other 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 St. Louis 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: St. Louis County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in St. Louis County

One city in St. Louis County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:

  • Eureka, 13,277 residents: 332 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.

The Pacific Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including St. Louis County, so its arrests are not broken out for St. Louis County here.

The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in St. Louis County: St. Louis County Park Rangers and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (other); St. Louis Community College at Meramec, the University of Missouri at St. Louis and Washington University (campus police).

How Many Arrests Eureka Reports

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.

  • Eureka: 332 for 2025, 411 for 2024, 347 for 2023, 186 for 2022, 196 for 2021 and 222 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.

Eureka's 332 arrests in 2025 were down 19 percent from 411 in 2024.

Through August 2026, Eureka reported 179 arrests, against 227 in the same months of 2025.

Booking: Where People Arrested in St. Louis County Are Held

A person kept in custody after an arrest in St. Louis 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 2024 the jail held about 1,140 people, up from about 1,000 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,232 beds, and it ran at 81 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.

SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the sheriff's office at stlouiscountypolice.com/citizen-resources/jail-inmate-information (page title: Jail Inmate Information | St. Louis County Police), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 9, 2026.

That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.

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 St. Louis County

An arrest in St. Louis County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the sheriff's office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; 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 St. Louis 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 in Eureka: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
  • An arrest by St. Louis County Park Rangers, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport or St. Louis Community College at Meramec: the records office of the agency involved.
  • Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at recordsrequest.stlouiscountymo.gov (page title: St. Louis County Sunshine RequestsNextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
  • Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.

The other St. Louis County guides go further: police reports.

Cities in St. Louis County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the 87 cities in St. Louis County: Eureka. Florissant, Chesterfield, Wildwood, University City, Ballwin, Kirkwood, Maryland Heights, Hazelwood, Webster Groves, Creve Coeur, Manchester, Ferguson and 74 more 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 St. Louis County Circuit Court.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in St. Louis County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in St. Louis County each year?

Eureka reported 332 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in St. Louis County?

Look on the custody page of the sheriff's office at stlouiscountypolice.com. It covers people booked into the county jail.

Where are people arrested in St. Louis County booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in St. Louis 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 St. Louis County?

From the agency that made the arrest: for most arrests in St. Louis County, the Pacific Police Department. Under the Missouri Sunshine Law the answer is due within 3 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at recordsrequest.stlouiscountymo.gov.

Is this the official St. Louis 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.