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 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Raritan, New Jersey, in Somerset County, has about 8,600 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 Prosecutor files charges, a case in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Somerset County. 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: Raritan public records, Somerset County arrest records, New Jersey arrest records and New Jersey inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Raritan
The FBI lists Raritan with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Raritan Police Department. It reported 97 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 Somerset County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 212 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Somerset County: the Somerset County State Police (state police); Prosecutor in Somerset County (other).
How Many Arrests Raritan 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.
- Raritan: 97 for 2025, 78 for 2024, 169 for 2022, 375 for 2020 and 693 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
Raritan's 97 arrests in 2025 were up 24 percent from 78 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Raritan reported 60 arrests, against 48 in the same months of 2025.
Across Somerset County, the 18 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,566 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Raritan Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Raritan 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 2020 the jail held about 120 people, down from about 200 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 439 beds, and it ran at 46 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 Somerset County Sheriff's Office at somersetcountysheriff.com (page title: Somerset County Jail Roster Lookup, PA, Inmate Search), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 New Jersey Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at www20.state.nj.us/DOC_Inmate/inmatefinder?i=I.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Raritan
An arrest in Raritan can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Somerset County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; New Jersey Courts Public Access, the Judiciary's free online case search for civil and criminal cases, which shows whether charges were filed; the County Prosecutor, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at somersetcountynj.gov/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDire..., phone (908) 575-3300).
New Jersey does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the New Jersey State Police 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 Raritan
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Open Public Records Act the agency must answer within 7 business days, and it may charge copying at 5 cents a page for letter size.
- An arrest by the Raritan police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at raritantwpnj.gov/forms-documents/forms/department-documents/clerk/2... (page title: Township of Raritan OPEN PUBLIC RECORDS ACT REQUEST FORM), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Somerset County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Prosecutor, (908) 575-3300, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at somersetcountynj.gov (page title: Request for Public Records | Somerset County).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the State Police.
The Somerset County guide covers every agency in the county: Somerset County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Raritan each year?
Raritan reported 97 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Raritan booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Somerset County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Raritan?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Somerset County are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the New Jersey State Police is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Open Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Raritan?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Raritan police for its own arrests, the Somerset County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Open Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at somersetcountynj.gov.
Is this the official Raritan 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.