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.
Lee County, Mississippi, has about 83,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lee County Sheriff's Office and four 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the Lee 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: Lee County public records, Mississippi arrest records, Mississippi inmate search and Mississippi criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lee County
The Lee County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lee County. It reported 97 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Lee County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Tupelo, 37,775 residents: 1,448 arrests reported for 2025.
- Saltillo, 4,968 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
- Verona, 2,718 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
- Guntown, 2,606 residents: 89 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 Baldwyn Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Lee County, so its arrests are not broken out for Lee County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lee 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.
- Tupelo: 1,448 for 2025, 1,474 for 2024, 1,241 for 2023, 1,636 for 2022, 1,704 for 2021 and 1,502 for 2020.
- Saltillo: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Verona: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Lee County Sheriff's Office: 97 for 2025, 88 for 2024, 129 for 2023, 195 for 2022, 287 for 2021 and 279 for 2020.
- Guntown: 89 for 2025, 42 for 2024, 59 for 2023 and 52 for 2022.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,938 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3,938 in 2025 against 3,908 in 2024, up 0.8 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,103 arrests, against 2,354 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lee County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Lee 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 200 people, up from about 170 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 210 beds, and it ran at 95 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 Lee County Sheriff's Office at leecosheriff.com/inmate-search (page title: Inmate Search | Lee County Sheriff's Office), phone (662) 432-2600, 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 Lee County
Whether someone was arrested in Lee County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Lee County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Lee County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at courts.ms.gov/mec/mec.php, phone 601-968-6628).
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 Lee 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 Lee County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (662) 432-2600.
- An arrest in Tupelo, Saltillo, Verona or Guntown: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Lee County Circuit Court, through the court records page at courts.ms.gov/mec/mec.php, phone 601-968-6628.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Criminal Information Center.
Cities in Lee County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the six cities in Lee County: Tupelo, Saltillo, Verona and Guntown. Shannon and Plantersville 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 Lee County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lee County each year?
Tupelo reported 1,448 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,938 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Lee County?
Look on the custody page of the Lee County Sheriff's Office at leecosheriff.com/inmate-search, or call (662) 432-2600. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Lee County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lee County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lee County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Lee 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 Lee County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lee 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.
Is this the official Lee 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.