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 on September 24, 2026.
Forrest County, Mississippi, has about 78,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Forrest County Sheriff's Office, two city agencies and six 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the Forrest 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: Forrest County public records, Mississippi arrest records, Mississippi inmate search and Mississippi criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Forrest County
The Forrest County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Forrest County. It reported 277 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside two of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Hattiesburg, 48,522 residents: 1,333 arrests reported for 2025.
- Petal, 11,538 residents: 246 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 FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Forrest County: the University of Southern Mississippi and Pearl River Community College at Forrest (campus police); Forrest General Hospital and the Forrest County School District (other); Hattiesburg Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division and the Hattiesburg Capitol Police (state agency).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Forrest 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.
- Hattiesburg: 1,333 for 2025, 1,334 for 2024, 1,064 for 2023, 716 for 2022, 777 for 2021 and 815 for 2020.
- Forrest County Sheriff's Office: 277 for 2025, 266 for 2024, 171 for 2023, 187 for 2022 and 221 for 2021.
- Petal: 246 for 2025 and 653 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,856 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,610 in 2025 against 1,600 in 2024, up 0.6 percent.
Through July 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 852 arrests, against 1,127 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Forrest County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Forrest 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 280 people, down from about 300 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 600 beds, and it ran at 47 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 Forrest County Sheriff's Office at forrestcountysheriff.com/inmate-roster (page title: Inmate Roster), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 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 Mississippi Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at mdoc.ms.gov/inmate_search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Forrest County
An arrest in Forrest County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Forrest County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Forrest 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 court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at forrestcountyms.us/forrest-county-courts (page title: Forrest County Courts), phone (601) 545 6100, belongs to a lower court, not to the Forrest 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 Forrest 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 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 Forrest County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Hattiesburg or Petal: 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 the University of Southern Mississippi, Forrest General Hospital or Pearl River Community College at Forrest: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Forrest 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 forrestcountyms.us/forrest-county-courts, phone (601) 545 6100, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at forrestcountysheriff.com (page title: Public Records Requests).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Criminal Information Center.
Cities in Forrest County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the two cities in Forrest County: Hattiesburg and Petal.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Forrest County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Forrest County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Hattiesburg (48,522)
- Petal (11,538)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Forrest County each year?
Hattiesburg reported 1,333 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,856 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Forrest County?
Look on the custody page of the Forrest County Sheriff's Office at forrestcountysheriff.com/inmate-roster. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Forrest County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Forrest County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Forrest County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Forrest 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 Forrest County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Forrest County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 forrestcountysheriff.com.
Is this the official Forrest 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.