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.
Ocean County, New Jersey, has about 666,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Ocean County Sheriff's Office, 32 city agencies and two campus, state or other 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 County Prosecutor files charges, a case in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Ocean County. 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: Ocean County public records, New Jersey arrest records, New Jersey inmate search and New Jersey criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Ocean County
The Ocean County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Ocean County. It reported 184 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists 19 cities in Ocean County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:
- Point Pleasant, 19,565 residents: 131 arrests reported for 2025.
- Beachwood, 11,242 residents: 92 arrests reported for 2025.
- Point Pleasant Beach, 4,941 residents: 405 arrests reported for 2025.
- South Toms River, 3,756 residents: 139 arrests reported for 2025.
- Tuckerton, 3,701 residents: 136 arrests reported for 2023.
- Lakehurst, 2,713 residents: 114 arrests reported for 2025.
- Seaside Heights, 2,522 residents: 762 arrests reported for 2025.
- Pine Beach, 2,214 residents: 30 arrests reported for 2025.
- Seaside Park, 2,058 residents: 24 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ocean Gate, 1,987 residents: 37 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lavallette, 1,854 residents: 14 arrests reported for 2025.
- Island Heights, 1,715 residents: 12 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 these agencies in Ocean County: Prosecutor in Ocean County (other); the Ocean County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Ocean 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.
- Toms River Township: 1,118 for 2025, 1,188 for 2024, 890 for 2023, 1,505 for 2020 and 2,262 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Lakewood Township: 1,100 for 2025, 845 for 2024, 872 for 2023, 1,460 for 2020 and 1,863 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Brick Township: 784 for 2025, 910 for 2024, 965 for 2023, 1,057 for 2022, 1,449 for 2020 and 1,843 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Seaside Heights: 762 for 2025, 881 for 2024, 912 for 2020 and 997 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Jackson Township: 521 for 2025, 464 for 2024, 424 for 2023, 395 for 2022, 589 for 2020 and 673 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Lacey Township: 471 for 2025, 579 for 2024, 432 for 2023, 324 for 2022, 385 for 2020 and 487 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Point Pleasant Beach: 405 for 2025, 352 for 2024, 304 for 2023, 204 for 2022, 931 for 2020 and 588 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Berkeley Township: 404 for 2025, 461 for 2024, 536 for 2023, 461 for 2022, 380 for 2020 and 665 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Barnegat Township: 356 for 2025, 236 for 2023, 299 for 2022, 840 for 2020 and 941 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Stafford Township: 355 for 2025, 314 for 2024, 308 for 2023, 301 for 2022, 268 for 2021 and 514 for 2020.
- Manchester Township: 299 for 2025, 250 for 2024, 207 for 2022, 561 for 2020 and 1,053 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
- South Toms River: 139 for 2025, 178 for 2024, 125 for 2023 and 179 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the 27 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 7,515 arrests that year. The 23 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 7,110 in 2025 against 7,324 in 2024, down 2.9 percent.
Through April 2026, the 21 agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,173 arrests, against 1,899 in the same months of 2025.
Ocean County Sheriff's Office, Little Egg Harbor Township and Surf City reported only part of 2025 (11 months, 7 months and 2 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Ocean County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Ocean 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 2023 the jail held about 300 people, down from about 400 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 692 beds, and it ran at 43 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 Ocean County Sheriff's Office at coroms.co.ocean.nj.us:8087/IML (page title: Inmate Lookup Tool), 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 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 Ocean County
Whether someone was arrested in Ocean County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Ocean County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Ocean County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at sng.co.ocean.nj.us/searchapplication); the County Prosecutor, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at ocponj.gov).
Statewide, New Jersey Courts Public Access is the Judiciary's free online case search for civil and criminal cases.
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 Ocean County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 Ocean County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Point Pleasant, Beachwood, Point Pleasant Beach, South Toms River, Tuckerton, Lakehurst 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 Prosecutor in Ocean County or the Ocean County State Police: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Prosecutor handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of New Jersey, Ocean County, through the court records page at sng.co.ocean.nj.us/searchapplication.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at oceancountyhealth.gov (page title: Ocean County Health Department | Request for Public Records | Ocean County Health Department).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the State Police.
Cities in Ocean County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the 19 cities in Ocean County: the twelve named above and Surf City, Ship Bottom, Beach Haven, Bay Head, Barnegat Light, Harvey Cedars and Mantoloking. The FBI's list also carries the Lakewood Township Police Department, the Berkeley Township Police Department, the Brick Township Police Department and ten more as city agencies in Ocean County; Lakewood Township, Berkeley Township, Brick Township and ten more are not among the cities above.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Superior Court of New Jersey, Ocean County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Ocean County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Beachwood (11,242)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Ocean County each year?
Toms River Township reported 1,118 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 27 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 7,515 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Ocean County?
Look on the custody page of the Ocean County Sheriff's Office at coroms.co.ocean.nj.us:8087/IML. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Ocean County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Ocean County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Ocean County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Ocean 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 Ocean County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Ocean County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Open Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at oceancountyhealth.gov.
Is this the official Ocean 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.