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 25, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Canandaigua, New York, in Ontario County, has about 10,000 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 Ontario County Supreme and County Courts. 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: Canandaigua public records, Ontario County arrest records, New York arrest records and New York inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Canandaigua
The FBI lists Canandaigua with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Canandaigua Police Department. It reported 452 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 Ontario County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 778 arrests for 2024.
How Many Arrests Canandaigua Reports
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.
- Canandaigua: 452 for 2025, 218 for 2024, 238 for 2023, 292 for 2022 and 405 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
Canandaigua's 452 arrests in 2025 were up 107 percent from 218 in 2024.
Across Ontario County, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,165 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Canandaigua Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Canandaigua 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.
So far in 2026 the jail has held about 92 people on an average day, down from about 140 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 291 beds, and it ran at 49 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 Ontario County Sheriff's Office at ontariocountyny.gov/1910/Incarcerated-Individual-Locator (page title: Incarcerated Individual Locator | Ontario County, NY), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 2, 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 York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision lists its inmates at nysdoccslookup.doccs.ny.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Canandaigua
An arrest in Canandaigua can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Ontario County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; eCourts, the Unified Court System's free online case search (WebCivil, WebCrims and WebFamily), which shows whether charges were filed; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at ontariocountyny.gov/110/District-Attorney, phone 585-396-4010).
New York is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Office of Court Administration sells a statewide search of criminal court records by name and date of birth, for $95 a search, through the New York State Office of Court Administration. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Canandaigua
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Freedom of Information Law the agency must answer within 5 business days, at least with an acknowledgment and a date for the full answer, and it may charge copying at 25 cents a page.
- An arrest by the Canandaigua police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at canandaiguanewyork.gov/399/Records-Request (page title: Records Request | Canandaigua, NY), phone 585-396-5035, 21 Ontario Street Canandaigua, NY 14424, Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Ontario County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 585-396-4010, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at ontariocountyny.nextrequest.com (page title: Ontario County FOIL RequestsNextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
The Ontario County guide covers every agency in the county: Ontario County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Canandaigua each year?
Canandaigua reported 452 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Canandaigua?
Look on the custody page of the Ontario County Sheriff's Office at ontariocountyny.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Canandaigua booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Ontario County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Canandaigua?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the New York State Office of Court Administration: the Office of Court Administration sells a statewide search of criminal court records by name and date of birth, for $95. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Freedom of Information Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Canandaigua?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Canandaigua police for its own arrests, the Ontario County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Freedom of Information Law the answer is due within 5 business days, at least with an acknowledgment and a date for the full answer; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at ontariocountyny.nextrequest.com.
Is this the official Canandaigua 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.