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 2025. 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 24, 2026 and September 30, 2026.
Kearney, Nebraska, in Buffalo County, has about 35,000 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 County Attorney files charges, a case in the Buffalo County District 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: Kearney public records, Buffalo County arrest records, Nebraska arrest records and Nebraska inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Kearney
The FBI lists Kearney with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Kearney Police Department. It reported 1,435 arrests for 2025. 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 Buffalo County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 553 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Buffalo County: the State Patrol in Buffalo County (state police); the University of Nebraska at Kearney (campus police).
How Many Arrests Kearney 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.
- Kearney: 1,435 for 2025, 1,541 for 2024, 1,809 for 2023, 1,796 for 2022, 1,450 for 2021 and 1,750 for 2020.
Kearney's 1,435 arrests in 2025 were down 6.9 percent from 1,541 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Kearney reported 680 arrests, against 887 in the same months of 2025.
Across Buffalo County, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,000 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Kearney Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Kearney is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2019 the jail held about 140 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 205 beds, and it ran at 69 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 Buffalo County Sheriff's Office at buffalocounty.ne.gov/county-offices/sheriff (page title: Sheriff | Buffalo County, NE), phone 308.236.8555, Monday - Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services lists its inmates at dcs-inmatesearch.ne.gov/Corrections/COR_input.jsp.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Kearney
Whether someone was arrested in Kearney, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Buffalo County District Court, kept by the Clerk of the District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at buffalocounty.ne.gov/county-offices/attorney, phone 308.236.1222).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at nebraskajudicial.gov/courts/buffalo-county-court (page title: Buffalo County Court | Nebraska Judicial Branch), phone 308-236-1228, belongs to a lower court, not to the Buffalo County District Court.
Statewide, Nebraska Trial Court Case Search is the Nebraska Judicial Branch's statewide case search, with a fee per search.
Nebraska is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Patrol sells name-based criminal history checks to anyone online, through the Nebraska State Patrol. 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 Kearney
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Nebraska Public Records Statutes the agency must answer within 4 business days, and it may charge copying, and staff time after the first four hours.
- An arrest by the Kearney police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at cityofkearney.org/697/Records-Information (page title: Records & Information | City of Kearney, NE), phone (308) 233-5250, 2025 Avenue A PO Box 1180 Kearney, NE 68848, Monday - Thursday 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 308.236.8555.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 308.236.1222, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Buffalo County District Court it is kept by the Clerk of the District Court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at nebraskajudicial.gov, phone 308-236-1228, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at buffalocounty.ne.gov (page title: Public Records Request | County Clerk | Buffalo County, NE).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Buffalo County guide covers every agency in the county: Buffalo County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Kearney each year?
Kearney reported 1,435 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Kearney?
Ask the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office at 308.236.8555; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at buffalocounty.ne.gov/county-offices/sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Kearney booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Kearney?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Nebraska State Patrol: the Patrol sells name-based criminal history checks to anyone online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Nebraska Public Records Statutes.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Kearney?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Kearney police for its own arrests, the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Nebraska Public Records Statutes the answer is due within 4 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at buffalocounty.ne.gov.
Is this the official Kearney 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.