Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2022. 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 between September 23, 2026 and September 26, 2026.
Conover, North Carolina, in Catawba County, has about 8,800 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city 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 Catawba County Superior Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Conover public records, Catawba County arrest records, North Carolina arrest records and North Carolina inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Conover
The FBI lists Conover with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Conover Police Department. It reported 391 arrests for 2022, its latest complete year. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Catawba County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 2,097 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Conover Reports
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.
- Conover: 391 for 2022, 489 for 2021 and 459 for 2020.
Conover's 391 arrests in 2022 were down 20 percent from 489 in 2021.
Across Catawba County, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 7,672 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Conover Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Conover 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 2024 the jail held about 340 people, up from about 210 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2022, the last year with a capacity figure, was 539 beds, and it ran at 55 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 Catawba County Sheriff's Office at injail.catawbacountync.gov/whosinjail (page title: Who's In Jail), 170 Newton District Court Conover Police Department View Alford, Alonzo 6/21/2026 441 2ND ST PL SW HICKORY, NC 28602, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, whose inmate locator is at dac.nc.gov/dac-services/criminal-offender-searches.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Conover
An arrest in Conover can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Catawba County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Catawba County Superior Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at nccourts.gov/locations/catawba-county).
Statewide, eCourts Portal is the North Carolina Judicial Branch's free statewide case search.
North Carolina does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation 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 Conover
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the North Carolina Public Records Act the agency must answer as promptly as possible; the statute sets no number of days, and it may charge the actual cost of copying.
- An arrest by the Conover police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at conovernc.gov/194/Police-Department (page title: Police Department | Conover, NC), phone 828-464-4698, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Catawba County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Catawba County Superior Court, through the court records page at nccourts.gov/locations/catawba-county.
- Your own statewide record: a Right to Review request, fingerprint-based, to the State Bureau of Investigation.
The Catawba County guide covers every agency in the county: Catawba County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Conover each year?
Conover reported 391 arrests to the FBI for 2022, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Conover?
Look on the custody page of the Catawba County Sheriff's Office at injail.catawbacountync.gov/whosinjail. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Conover booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Catawba County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Conover?
The court files of criminal cases in the Catawba County Superior Court are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the North Carolina Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Conover?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Conover police for its own arrests, the Catawba County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the North Carolina Public Records Act the answer is due as promptly as possible; the statute sets no number of days.
Is this the official Conover website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.