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.
Taos County, New Mexico, has about 34,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Taos County Sheriff's Office and four 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 Taos 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: Taos County public records, New Mexico arrest records, New Mexico inmate search and New Mexico criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Taos County
The Taos County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Taos County. It reported 108 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Taos County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Taos, 6,453 residents: 185 arrests reported for 2025.
- Questa, 1,801 residents: 10 arrests reported for 2024.
- Red River, 537 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Taos Ski Valley, 82 residents: 0 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 Taos 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.
- Taos: 185 for 2025, 187 for 2024, 220 for 2023, 223 for 2022, 212 for 2021 and 387 for 2020.
- Taos County Sheriff's Office: 108 for 2025 and 362 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Red River: 0 for 2025 and 0 for 2024.
- Taos Ski Valley: 0 for 2025 and 0 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Questa: 10 for 2024 and 0 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 293 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 185 in 2025 against 187 in 2024, down 1.1 percent.
Through August 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 205 arrests, against 189 in the same months of 2025.
Questa reported only part of 2025 (3 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Taos County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Taos 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 2023 the jail held about 56 people, down from about 58 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 88 beds, and it ran at 66 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Taos County Sheriff's Office at taoscounty.org/217/Sheriffs-Office (page title: Sheriff's Office | Taos County, NM), phone 575-737-6480, 226 Cruz Alta Rd Taos, NM 87571, Monday-Friday (closed for lunch from 12 to 1PM, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
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 Taos County
Whether someone was arrested in Taos County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the District Court for Taos County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/about-this-district/court-dockets/taos-...); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at 8thda.com).
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 Taos 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 Taos County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 575-737-6480.
- An arrest in Taos, Questa, Red River or Taos Ski Valley: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the District Court for Taos County, through the court records page at eighthdistrict.nmcourts.gov.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Taos County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the four cities in Taos County: Taos, Questa, Red River and Taos Ski Valley.
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 Taos County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Taos County each year?
Taos reported 185 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 293 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Taos County?
Ask the Taos County Sheriff's Office at 575-737-6480; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at taoscounty.org/217/Sheriffs-Office.
Where are people arrested in Taos County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Taos County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Taos County?
The court files of criminal cases in the District Court for Taos 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 Taos County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Taos 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.
Is this the official Taos 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.