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 24, 2026.
Sandoval County, New Mexico, has about 158,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office and five city 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the District Court for Sandoval 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: Sandoval County public records, New Mexico arrest records, New Mexico inmate search and New Mexico criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Sandoval County
The Sandoval County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Sandoval County. It reported 652 arrests for 2019, its latest complete year.
Arrests inside five 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:
- Rio Rancho, 112,524 residents: 2,007 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bernalillo, 9,159 residents: 337 arrests reported for 2023.
- Corrales, 8,530 residents: 47 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cuba, 640 residents: 44 arrests reported for 2019.
- San Ysidro, 171 residents: 2 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Sandoval 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.
- Rio Rancho: 2,007 for 2025, 2,135 for 2024, 2,812 for 2023, 2,622 for 2022, 2,169 for 2021 and 3,802 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Corrales: 47 for 2025, 58 for 2024, 43 for 2023, 36 for 2022, 50 for 2021 and 58 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- San Ysidro: 2 for 2025, 3 for 2022 and 8 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Sandoval County Sheriff's Office: 652 for 2019.
- Bernalillo: 337 for 2023 and 497 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Cuba: 44 for 2019.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,056 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,054 in 2025 against 2,193 in 2024, down 6.3 percent.
Through August 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,199 arrests, against 1,398 in the same months of 2025.
Bernalillo reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Sandoval County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Sandoval 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 120 people, down from about 390 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 511 beds, and it ran at 76 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 Sandoval County Sheriff's Office at sandovalcountynm.gov/departments/detention-center/inmatesearch (page title: Inmate Search & Video Visitation | Sandoval County), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 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 sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the New Mexico Corrections Department lists its inmates at cd.nm.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Sandoval County
Whether someone was arrested in Sandoval County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; New Mexico Courts Case Lookup, the New Mexico Judiciary's free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed.
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 Sandoval 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 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 Sandoval County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Corrales, Cuba or San Ysidro: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sandovalcountynm.gov/public-records-request (page title: Records Request | Sandoval County).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Sandoval County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the six cities in Sandoval County: Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Corrales, Cuba and San Ysidro. Jemez Springs has no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the District Court for Sandoval County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Sandoval County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Rio Rancho (112,524)
- Bernalillo (9,159)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Sandoval County each year?
Rio Rancho reported 2,007 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,056 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Sandoval County?
Look on the custody page of the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office at sandovalcountynm.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Sandoval County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Sandoval County?
The court files of criminal cases in the District Court for Sandoval 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 Sandoval County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Inspection of Public Records Act the answer is due within 15 calendar days, after acknowledging the request within 3 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sandovalcountynm.gov/public-records-request.
Is this the official Sandoval 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.