SearchSystems Editorial

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 between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.

About this guide

Somerset County, New Jersey, has about 357,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Somerset County Sheriff's Office, 19 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, Somerset 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: Somerset County public records, New Jersey arrest records, New Jersey inmate search and New Jersey criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Somerset County

The Somerset County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Somerset County. It reported 212 arrests for 2025.

The FBI lists ten cities in Somerset County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:

  • North Plainfield, 23,072 residents: 274 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Somerville, 14,428 residents: 103 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Bound Brook, 12,643 residents: 257 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Manville, 11,031 residents: 90 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Raritan, 8,584 residents: 97 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Bernardsville, 8,020 residents: 36 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Watchung, 6,606 residents: 210 arrests reported for 2025.
  • South Bound Brook, 4,965 residents: 34 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Peapack and Gladstone, 2,602 residents: 15 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Far Hills, 935 residents: 94 arrests reported for 2020.

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 Somerset County: the Somerset County State Police (state police); Prosecutor in Somerset County (other).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Somerset 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.

  • Hillsborough Township: 516 for 2025, 417 for 2024, 415 for 2023, 347 for 2022, 213 for 2021 and 439 for 2020.
  • North Plainfield: 274 for 2025, 223 for 2024, 210 for 2023, 161 for 2022, 161 for 2021 and 421 for 2020.
  • Bound Brook: 257 for 2025, 210 for 2023, 181 for 2022, 188 for 2020 and 340 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
  • Bridgewater Township: 233 for 2025, 156 for 2024, 368 for 2020 and 591 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
  • Somerset County Sheriff's Office: 212 for 2025, 194 for 2024, 169 for 2023, 115 for 2022 and 406 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
  • Watchung: 210 for 2025, 193 for 2024, 161 for 2023, 192 for 2022, 116 for 2021 and 270 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
  • Branchburg Township: 128 for 2025, 185 for 2023, 140 for 2022, 214 for 2020 and 181 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
  • Green Brook Township: 110 for 2025, 96 for 2024, 112 for 2023, 74 for 2022, 74 for 2020 and 110 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
  • Somerville: 103 for 2025, 109 for 2024, 289 for 2022, 347 for 2020 and 637 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
  • Raritan: 97 for 2025, 78 for 2024, 169 for 2022, 375 for 2020 and 693 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
  • Manville: 90 for 2025, 63 for 2024, 183 for 2022, 227 for 2020 and 260 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
  • Montgomery Township: 87 for 2025, 68 for 2024, 49 for 2022, 202 for 2020 and 489 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.

Together, the 18 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,566 arrests that year. The 13 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,067 in 2025 against 1,708 in 2024, up 21 percent.

Through July 2026, the 15 agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,462 arrests, against 1,255 in the same months of 2025.

Far Hills and Franklin Township reported only part of 2025 (11 months and 6 months) and are left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Somerset County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Somerset 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 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 Somerset County

Whether someone was arrested in Somerset County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: 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 Somerset 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 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 Somerset County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
  • An arrest in North Plainfield, Somerville, Bound Brook, Manville, Raritan, Bernardsville 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 the Somerset County State Police or Prosecutor in Somerset County: the records office of the agency involved.
  • 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.

Cities in Somerset County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for ten of the 12 cities in Somerset County: North Plainfield, Somerville, Bound Brook, Manville, Raritan, Bernardsville, Watchung, South Bound Brook, Peapack and Gladstone and Far Hills. Rocky Hill and Millstone have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries Franklin Township Police Department, Somerset County, the Green Brook Township Police Department, the Hillsborough Township Police Department and six more as city agencies in Somerset County; Franklin Township, Green Brook Township, Hillsborough Township and six 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, Somerset County.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Somerset 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 Somerset County each year?

Hillsborough Township reported 516 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 18 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,566 between them.

Where are people arrested in Somerset County 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 Somerset County?

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 Somerset County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Somerset 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 somersetcountynj.gov.

Is this the official Somerset 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.