Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 24, 2026 and October 1, 2026.
Columbus, Mississippi, in Lowndes County, has about 23,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the Lowndes County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Columbus public records, Lowndes County arrest records, Mississippi arrest records and Mississippi inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Columbus
The FBI lists Columbus with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Columbus Police Department. It reported 276 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 685 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Lowndes County: East Mississippi Community College at Communiversity and Mississippi University for Women (campus police).
How Many Arrests Columbus Reports
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.
- Columbus: 276 for 2025.
Through July 2026, Columbus reported 208 arrests, against 155 in the same months of 2025.
Across Lowndes County, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 965 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Columbus Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Columbus 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 190 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 288 beds, and it ran at 65 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 Lowndes County Sheriff's Office at lowndes-so.org (page title: Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, MS), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 1, 2026.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Mississippi Department of Corrections lists its inmates at mdoc.ms.gov/inmate_search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Columbus
Whether someone was arrested in Columbus, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Lowndes County Circuit Court, kept by the Circuit Clerk for criminal and civil cases and the Chancery Clerk for divorces, estates and land records, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at msda16.org, phone 662-329-5911).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at lowndescountyms.com/177/Lowndes-County-Courts (page title: Lowndes County Courts | Lowndes County, MS), phone 662-329-5884, belongs to a lower court, not to the Lowndes County Circuit Court.
Mississippi does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Criminal Information Center goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court's own case index is the public record of an arrest that led to a charge.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Columbus
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Mississippi Public Records Act the agency must answer within 7 working days, or up to 14 where local rules allow, and it may charge the actual cost of search, review and copying.
- An arrest by the Columbus police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at jesuppolicedepartment.com/mississippi/police-department/columbus-po... (page title: Columbus Police Department), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
- An arrest by the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 662-329-5911, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Lowndes County Circuit Court it is kept by the Circuit Clerk for criminal and civil cases and the Chancery Clerk for divorces, estates and land records. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at lowndescountyms.com/177/Lowndes-County-Courts, phone 662-329-5884, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lowndescountyms.com/199/Public-Record-Request (page title: Public Record Request | Lowndes County, MS).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Criminal Information Center.
The Lowndes County guide covers every agency in the county: Lowndes County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Columbus each year?
Columbus reported 276 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Columbus?
Ask the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at lowndes-so.org.
Where are people arrested in Columbus booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Columbus?
The court files of criminal cases in the Lowndes County Circuit Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Criminal Information Center is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Mississippi Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Columbus?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Columbus police for its own arrests, the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Mississippi Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 working days, or up to 14 where local rules allow; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lowndescountyms.com/199/Public-Record-Request.
Is this the official Columbus website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.