Nash County Arrest Records: Who Makes Arrests, Where People Are Booked and How to Get the Report

Who Makes Arrests in Nash County

The Nash County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Nash County. It reported 391 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:

• Rocky Mount, 54,541 residents: 566 arrests reported for 2024.
• Nashville, 5,850 residents: 54 arrests reported for 2024.
• Sharpsburg, 1,774 residents: 105 arrests reported for 2025.
• Spring Hope, 1,358 residents: 1,153 arrests reported for 2025.
• Middlesex, 960 residents: 13 arrests reported for 2025.
• Whitakers, 648 residents: 1,153 arrests reported for 2025.
• Bailey, 588 residents: 18 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 Nash County: Nash County Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement (other).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Nash County

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.

• Spring Hope: 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.
• Whitakers: 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.
• Nash County Sheriff's Office: 391 for 2025, 295 for 2024, 331 for 2023, 411 for 2022 and 348 for 2021.
• Sharpsburg: 105 for 2025, 88 for 2024, 61 for 2023, 103 for 2021, 166 for 2020 and 210 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
• Bailey: 18 for 2025, 17 for 2022, 24 for 2020 and 12 for 2019; 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
• Middlesex: 13 for 2025, 16 for 2024, 16 for 2022, 22 for 2020 and 25 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
• Rocky Mount: 566 for 2024, 1,399 for 2023, 1,322 for 2022, 1,540 for 2021, 2,247 for 2020 and 2,813 for 2019.
• Nashville: 54 for 2024, 71 for 2023, 96 for 2022 and 37 for 2021.

Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,833 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,815 in 2025 against 2,725 in 2024, up 3.3 percent.

Through June 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,319 arrests, against 1,356 in the same months of 2025.

Nashville and Rocky Mount reported only part of 2025 (8 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Nash County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Nash 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 140 people, down from about 240 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 276 beds, and it ran at 88 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.

SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Nash County Sheriff's Office at nashcountync.gov/252/Detention-Center (page title: Detention Center | Nash County, NC), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.

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 Nash County

For Nash County the place to look is the case index of the Nash 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/nash-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 Nash 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 Nash County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
• An arrest in Rocky Mount, Nashville, Sharpsburg, Spring Hope, Middlesex, Whitakers 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 Nash County Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement: the records office of the agency involved.
• The court file of a case that was filed: the Nash County Superior Court, through the court records page at nccourts.gov/locations/nash-county.
• Your own statewide record: a Right to Review request, fingerprint-based, to the State Bureau of Investigation.

Cities in Nash County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the 11 cities in Nash County: Rocky Mount, Nashville, Sharpsburg, Spring Hope, Middlesex, Whitakers and Bailey. Red Oak, Dortches, Momeyer and Castalia 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 Nash County Superior Court.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Nash County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:

• Rocky Mount (54,541)
• Nashville (5,850)

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Nash County each year?

Spring Hope reported 1,153 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,833 between them.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Nash County?

Ask the Nash County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at nashcountync.gov/252/Detention-Center.

Where are people arrested in Nash County booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Nash County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Nash County?

The court files of criminal cases in the Nash 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 Nash County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Nash 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 Nash 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.