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.
Vernon County, Missouri, has about 20,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Vernon 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 Vernon 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: Vernon County public records, Missouri arrest records, Missouri inmate search and Missouri criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Vernon County
The Vernon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Vernon County. It reported 93 arrests for 2025.
One city in Vernon County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Nevada, 8,294 residents: 187 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 Vernon 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.
- Nevada: 187 for 2025, 191 for 2024, 360 for 2023, 300 for 2022, 309 for 2021 and 227 for 2020.
- Vernon County Sheriff's Office: 93 for 2025, 27 for 2024, 54 for 2023, 14 for 2022, 63 for 2021 and 655 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 280 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 280 in 2025 against 218 in 2024, up 28 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 226 arrests, against 171 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Vernon County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Vernon 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 2023 the jail held about 120 people, down from about 120 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 148 beds, and it ran at 80 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 Vernon County Sheriff's Office at vernonsheriff.com (page title: Vernon County Jail Roster Lookup, WI, Inmate Search), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 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 Vernon County
An arrest in Vernon County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Vernon County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Vernon County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at vernoncountymo.org/?page_id=30, phone 417-448-2525); the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at vernoncountymo.org/?page_id=32, phone 417.667.4862).
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 Vernon 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 Vernon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Nevada: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 417.667.4862, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Vernon County Circuit Court, through the court records page at vernoncountymo.org/?page_id=30, phone 417-448-2525.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Vernon County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the 12 cities in Vernon County: Nevada. Sheldon, Schell City, Walker, Bronaugh, Moundville, Milo, Richards, Deerfield, Harwood, Metz and Stotesbury 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 Vernon County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Vernon County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Nevada (8,294)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Vernon County each year?
Nevada reported 187 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 280 between them.
Where are people arrested in Vernon County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Vernon County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Vernon 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 Vernon County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Vernon 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 Vernon 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.