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.
Cascade County, Montana, has about 85,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Cascade County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and one other 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 County Attorney files charges, a case in the Cascade County District 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: Cascade County public records, Montana arrest records, Montana inmate search and Montana criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Cascade County
The Cascade County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Cascade County. It reported 589 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Cascade County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Great Falls, 60,013 residents: 3,013 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 one more agency in Cascade County: the Great Falls International Airport Authority (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Cascade 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.
- Great Falls: 3,013 for 2025, 2,992 for 2024, 3,516 for 2023, 3,304 for 2022, 3,038 for 2021 and 3,078 for 2020.
- Cascade County Sheriff's Office: 589 for 2025, 611 for 2023, 384 for 2022, 403 for 2021, 348 for 2020 and 289 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,602 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3,013 in 2025 against 2,992 in 2024, up 0.7 percent.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,216 arrests, against 2,450 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Cascade County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Cascade 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 430 people, down from about 470 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 365 beds, and it ran at 117 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 Cascade County Sheriff's Office at cascadecountymt.gov/314/Inmate-Roster (page title: Inmate Roster | Cascade County, MT), phone 406-454-6820, 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 Montana Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at offendersearch.mt.gov/conweb.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Cascade County
Whether someone was arrested in Cascade County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Cascade County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Cascade County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at cascadecountymt.gov/158/Clerk-of-Courts-Office, phone (406) 604-7796).
Montana is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the CHOPRS service lets anyone search public criminal history online by name, through the Montana Department of Justice. 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 Cascade County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. Under the Montana Public Records Act the agency must answer in a timely manner; the statute sets no number of days, and it may charge the actual cost of fulfilling the request.
- An arrest by the Cascade County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 406-454-6820.
- An arrest in Great Falls: 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 Great Falls International Airport Authority: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Cascade County District Court, through the court records page at cascadecountymt.gov, phone (406) 604-7796.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Cascade County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the four cities in Cascade County: Great Falls. Cascade, Belt and Neihart 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 Cascade County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Cascade County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Great Falls (60,013)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Cascade County each year?
Great Falls reported 3,013 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,602 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Cascade County?
Look on the custody page of the Cascade County Sheriff's Office at cascadecountymt.gov/314/Inmate-Roster, or call 406-454-6820. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Cascade County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Cascade County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Cascade County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Montana Department of Justice: the CHOPRS service lets anyone search public criminal history online by name. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Montana Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Cascade County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Cascade County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Montana Public Records Act the answer is due in a timely manner; the statute sets no number of days.
Is this the official Cascade 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.