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.
Rankin County, Mississippi, has about 161,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Rankin County Sheriff's Office, seven city agencies and one state 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the Rankin 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: Rankin County public records, Mississippi arrest records, Mississippi inmate search and Mississippi criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Rankin County
The Rankin County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Rankin County. It reported 582 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside seven 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:
- Pearl, 28,458 residents: 3,954 arrests reported for 2025.
- Brandon, 25,870 residents: 545 arrests reported for 2025.
- Flowood, 10,853 residents: 936 arrests reported for 2025.
- Richland, 7,607 residents: 1,437 arrests reported for 2025.
- Florence, 4,810 residents: 217 arrests reported for 2025.
- Pelahatchie, 1,300 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
- Puckett, 345 residents: 29 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Jackson Police Department is listed by the FBI across three counties including Rankin County, so its arrests are not broken out for Rankin County here.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Rankin County: Pearl Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division (state agency).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Rankin County
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.
- Pearl: 3,954 for 2025.
- Richland: 1,437 for 2025, 749 for 2024, 895 for 2023, 813 for 2022 and 695 for 2021.
- Pelahatchie: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Flowood: 936 for 2025, 902 for 2024, 1,139 for 2023, 1,042 for 2022, 1,119 for 2021 and 1,661 for 2020.
- Rankin County Sheriff's Office: 582 for 2025.
- Brandon: 545 for 2025, 268 for 2024, 222 for 2023, 229 for 2022, 235 for 2021 and 318 for 2020.
- Florence: 217 for 2025, 216 for 2022, 180 for 2021, 168 for 2020 and 428 for 2019; 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Puckett: 29 for 2024, 60 for 2023, 30 for 2022, 29 for 2021 and 28 for 2020.
Together, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 8,823 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,088 in 2025 against 2,054 in 2024, up 1.7 percent.
Through July 2026, the seven agencies with every month so far on file reported 4,219 arrests, against 5,483 in the same months of 2025.
Puckett reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Rankin County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Rankin 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 470 people, up from about 470 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 650 beds, and it ran at 72 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 Rankin County Sheriff's Office at www2.rankincounty.org/so/inmate/current.php (page title: Rankin County Jail | Current Inmates), phone (601) 825-1479, 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 Rankin County
Whether someone was arrested in Rankin County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Rankin County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Rankin 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 rankincounty.org/department, phone 601.608.0056).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at rankincounty.org/department/index.php?structureid=41 (page title: Justice Court | Rankin County, Mississippi), phone (601) 824-2668, belongs to a lower court, not to the Rankin 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 Rankin 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 Rankin County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (601) 825-1479.
- An arrest in Pearl, Brandon, Flowood, Richland, Florence, Pelahatchie or another of the cities listed above: 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 Pearl Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 601.608.0056, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Rankin 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 rankincounty.org, phone (601) 824-2668, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at rankincounty.org (page title: Public Information Requests | Rankin County, Mississippi).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Criminal Information Center.
Cities in Rankin County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the seven cities in Rankin County: Pearl, Brandon, Flowood, Richland, Florence, Pelahatchie and Puckett.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Rankin County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Rankin 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 Rankin County each year?
Pearl reported 3,954 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the seven agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 8,823 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Rankin County?
Look on the custody page of the Rankin County Sheriff's Office at www2.rankincounty.org/so/inmate/current.php, or call (601) 825-1479. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Rankin County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Rankin County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Rankin County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Rankin 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 Rankin County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Rankin 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 rankincounty.org.
Is this the official Rankin 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.