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 23, 2026.
Catawba County, North Carolina, has about 167,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Catawba County Sheriff's Office and eight 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 Catawba County Superior 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: Catawba County public records, North Carolina arrest records, North Carolina inmate search and North Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Catawba County
The Catawba County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Catawba County. It reported 2,097 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists eight cities in Catawba County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Hickory, 45,081 residents: 1,687 arrests reported for 2025.
- Newton, 13,571 residents: 429 arrests reported for 2025.
- Conover, 8,760 residents: 391 arrests reported for 2022.
- Long View, 5,289 residents: 188 arrests reported for 2022.
- Maiden, 3,854 residents: 1,153 arrests reported for 2025.
- Claremont, 1,753 residents: 1,153 arrests reported for 2025.
- Catawba, 729 residents: 52 arrests reported for 2019.
- Brookford, 449 residents: 1,153 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Catawba 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.
- Catawba County Sheriff's Office: 2,097 for 2025, 982 for 2023, 1,444 for 2022, 2,687 for 2021 and 2,739 for 2020; 2024 is missing months.
- Hickory: 1,687 for 2025, 1,590 for 2024, 1,633 for 2023, 1,881 for 2022, 2,146 for 2021 and 2,005 for 2020.
- Brookford: 1,153 for 2025, 1,163 for 2024, 1,164 for 2023, 1,164 for 2022, 1,164 for 2021 and 1,144 for 2020.
- Claremont: 1,153 for 2025, 1,163 for 2024, 1,164 for 2023, 1,164 for 2022, 1,164 for 2021 and 1,144 for 2020.
- Maiden: 1,153 for 2025, 1,163 for 2024, 1,164 for 2023, 1,164 for 2022, 1,164 for 2021 and 1,144 for 2020.
- Newton: 429 for 2025, 410 for 2024, 457 for 2023, 520 for 2022, 488 for 2021 and 433 for 2020.
- Conover: 391 for 2022, 489 for 2021 and 459 for 2020.
- Long View: 188 for 2022, 283 for 2021, 389 for 2020 and 363 for 2019.
- Catawba: 52 for 2019.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 7,672 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,575 in 2025 against 5,489 in 2024, up 1.6 percent.
Through July 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 4,291 arrests, against 4,594 in the same months of 2025.
Catawba reported only part of 2025 (6 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Catawba County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Catawba 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 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 Catawba County
An arrest in Catawba County 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 Catawba 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 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 Catawba County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Hickory, Newton, Conover, Long View, Maiden, Claremont 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.
- 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.
Cities in Catawba County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the eight cities in Catawba County: Hickory, Newton, Conover, Long View, Maiden, Claremont, Catawba and Brookford.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Catawba County Superior Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Catawba 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 Catawba County each year?
The Catawba County Sheriff's Office reported 2,097 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 7,672 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Catawba County?
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 Catawba County 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 Catawba County?
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 Catawba County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Catawba County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 Catawba 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.