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. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 24, 2026 and October 9, 2026.
Phillips County, Montana, has about 4,200 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Phillips County Sheriff's Office. 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 Phillips 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: Phillips County public records, Montana arrest records, Montana inmate search and Montana criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Phillips County
The Phillips County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Phillips County. It reported 91 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year.
How Many Arrests The Phillips County Sheriff's Office Reports
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.
- Phillips County Sheriff's Office: 91 for 2023, 102 for 2022, 80 for 2021 and 78 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
The Phillips County Sheriff's Office's 91 arrests in 2023 were down 11 percent from 102 in 2022.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Phillips County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Phillips 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.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Phillips County Sheriff's Office at phillipscosheriff.com/inmates (page title: Inmate Roster | Phillips County Sheriff's Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 9, 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 Phillips County
Whether someone was arrested in Phillips County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Phillips County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Phillips County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at courts.mt.gov).
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 Phillips 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 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 Phillips County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Phillips County District Court, through the court records page at courts.mt.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sosmt.gov/public-records-request (page title: Public Records Request | Official Montana Secretary of State Website | Christi Jacobsen).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The other Phillips County guides go further: warrants, criminal records, court records, police reports, traffic tickets and divorce records.
Cities in Phillips County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists no city in Phillips County with an arrest reporting agency of its own; the counts above are the county agencies'.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Phillips County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Phillips County each year?
The Phillips County Sheriff's Office reported 91 arrests to the FBI for 2023, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Phillips County?
Look on the custody page of the Phillips County Sheriff's Office at phillipscosheriff.com/inmates. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Phillips County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Phillips County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Phillips 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 Phillips County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Phillips 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sosmt.gov/public-records-request.
Is this the official Phillips 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.