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 4, 2026.

About this guide

Union County, New Jersey, has about 594,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Union County Sheriff's Office, 21 city agencies and four 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, Union 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: Union County public records, New Jersey arrest records, New Jersey inmate search and New Jersey criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Union County

The Union County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Union County. It reported 122 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside 13 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, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:

  • Elizabeth, 140,413 residents: 2,197 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Plainfield, 56,507 residents: 1,226 arrests reported for 2024.
  • Linden, 45,393 residents: 985 arrests reported for 2023.
  • Westfield, 32,050 residents: 111 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Rahway, 30,763 residents: 340 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Summit, 23,102 residents: 119 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Roselle, 23,064 residents: 251 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Roselle Park, 14,390 residents: 80 arrests reported for 2025.
  • New Providence, 13,957 residents: 81 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Kenilworth, 8,527 residents: 99 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Fanwood, 7,968 residents: 32 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Mountainside, 7,228 residents: 40 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 Union County: Kean University (campus police); Prosecutor in Union County and the Union County Park Police (other); the Union County State Police (state police).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Union 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.

  • Elizabeth: 2,197 for 2025, 1,979 for 2024, 2,058 for 2023, 1,629 for 2022, 1,456 for 2021 and 3,567 for 2020.
  • Union Township: 864 for 2025, 864 for 2024, 915 for 2023, 1,357 for 2020 and 2,299 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Hillside Township: 356 for 2025, 351 for 2024, 362 for 2023, 364 for 2022, 254 for 2021 and 543 for 2020.
  • Rahway: 340 for 2025, 324 for 2024, 288 for 2023, 264 for 2022, 198 for 2021 and 470 for 2020.
  • Roselle: 251 for 2025, 222 for 2024, 191 for 2023, 161 for 2022, 321 for 2020 and 696 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
  • Cranford Township: 184 for 2025, 180 for 2024, 142 for 2023, 113 for 2022, 105 for 2021 and 845 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
  • Springfield Township: 167 for 2025, 168 for 2024, 126 for 2023, 143 for 2022, 123 for 2021 and 232 for 2020.
  • Clark Township: 129 for 2025, 188 for 2024, 123 for 2023, 104 for 2022, 235 for 2020 and 383 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
  • Union County Sheriff's Office: 122 for 2025, 124 for 2024, 183 for 2022 and 1,299 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
  • Summit: 119 for 2025, 85 for 2024, 73 for 2023, 64 for 2022, 45 for 2020 and 128 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
  • Westfield: 111 for 2025, 110 for 2024, 83 for 2023, 90 for 2022, 87 for 2021 and 206 for 2020.
  • Kenilworth: 99 for 2025, 105 for 2024, 125 for 2023, 62 for 2022, 109 for 2020 and 156 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.

Together, the 20 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,391 arrests that year. The 19 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,296 in 2025 against 4,978 in 2024, up 6.4 percent.

Through July 2026, the 16 agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,873 arrests, against 2,933 in the same months of 2025.

Linden and Plainfield reported only part of 2025 (9 months and 7 months) and are left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Union County Are Held

A person kept in custody after an arrest in Union County 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 330 people, down from about 420 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 995 beds, and it ran at 42 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 Union County Sheriff's Office at unioncountynj.org (page title: Union County, NJ, Sheriff & Jail Info, 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 sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the New Jersey Department of Corrections lists its inmates at www20.state.nj.us/DOC_Inmate/inmatefinder?i=I.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Union County

Whether someone was arrested in Union County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Union County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at njcourts.gov/public/find-a-case).

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 Union 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 Union County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
  • An arrest in Elizabeth, Plainfield, Linden, Westfield, Rahway, Summit 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 Kean University, Prosecutor in Union County or the Union County Park Police: the records office of the agency involved.
  • The court file of a case that was filed: the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union County, through the court records page at njcourts.gov/public/find-a-case.
  • Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the State Police.

Cities in Union County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the 13 cities in Union County: the twelve named above and Garwood. The FBI's list also carries Springfield Township Police Department, Union County, the Scotch Plains Township Police Department, the Hillside Township Police Department and five more as city agencies in Union County; Springfield Township, Scotch Plains Township, Hillside Township and five 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, Union County.

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

Elizabeth reported 2,197 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 20 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,391 between them.

Where are people arrested in Union County booked?

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

Are arrest records public in Union County?

The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union 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 Union County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Union 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.

Is this the official Union 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.