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 October 2, 2026.
Aztec, New Mexico, in San Juan County, has about 6,100 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the District Court for San Juan 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: Aztec public records, San Juan County arrest records, New Mexico arrest records and New Mexico inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Aztec
The FBI lists Aztec with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Aztec Police Department. It reported 169 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 San Juan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 1,151 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Aztec 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.
- Aztec: 169 for 2025, 159 for 2024, 182 for 2023, 165 for 2022, 195 for 2021 and 169 for 2020.
Aztec's 169 arrests in 2025 were up 6.3 percent from 159 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Aztec reported 86 arrests, against 119 in the same months of 2025.
Across San Juan County, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,828 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Aztec Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Aztec 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 2023 the jail held about 530 people, down from about 590 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 1,094 beds, and it ran at 48 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 San Juan County Sheriff's Office at sanjuansheriff.org (page title: About San Juan County Sheriff and Jail Inmate Locator), 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 Mexico Corrections Department, whose inmate locator is at cd.nm.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Aztec
Whether someone was arrested in Aztec, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the San Juan County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the District Court for San Juan County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at sjcounty.net/government/county-clerk/about, phone (505) 334-4231); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at nmdas.com/judicial-districts/eleventh-judicial-district-div-i, phone (505) 599-9810).
Statewide, New Mexico Courts Case Lookup is the New Mexico Judiciary's free statewide case search.
New Mexico does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety 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 Aztec
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 Inspection of Public Records Act the agency must answer within 15 calendar days, after acknowledging the request within 3 business days, and it may charge copying at no more than $1 a page.
- An arrest by the Aztec police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at aztecnm.gov/police.html (page title: Aztec Police Department), phone (505) 334-6622, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (505) 599-9810, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the District Court for San Juan County, through the court records page at sjcounty.net/government/county-clerk/about, phone (505) 334-4231.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
The San Juan County guide covers every agency in the county: San Juan County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Aztec each year?
Aztec reported 169 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Aztec booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Aztec?
The court files of criminal cases in the District Court for San Juan County are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Inspection of Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Aztec?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Aztec police for its own arrests, the San Juan County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Inspection of Public Records Act the answer is due within 15 calendar days, after acknowledging the request within 3 business days.
Is this the official Aztec 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.