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 on September 23, 2026.
Olean, New York, in Cattaraugus County, has about 14,000 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 Cattaraugus 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: Olean public records, Cattaraugus County arrest records, New York arrest records and New York inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Olean
The FBI lists Olean with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Olean Police Department. It reported 787 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 Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 494 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Olean 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.
- Olean: 787 for 2025, 851 for 2024, 675 for 2023, 578 for 2022, 391 for 2021 and 315 for 2020.
Olean's 787 arrests in 2025 were down 7.5 percent from 851 in 2024.
Across Cattaraugus County, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,748 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Olean Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Olean 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 110 people on an average day, down from about 130 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 148 beds, and it ran at 70 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 Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.cattco.gov/inmateSearch (page title: Inmate Search | Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office (NY)), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, whose inmate locator is at nysdoccslookup.doccs.ny.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Olean
An arrest in Olean can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Cattaraugus County Supreme and County Courts, kept by the County Clerk, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at cattco.gov/district-attorney, phone (716) 938-2220).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at cattco.gov/courts (page title: Cattaraugus County Court System | Cattaraugus County Website), phone 716-379-6614, belongs to a lower court, not to the Cattaraugus County Supreme and County Courts.
Statewide, eCourts is the Unified Court System's free online case search (WebCivil, WebCrims and WebFamily).
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 Olean
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 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 agency that reports for Olean: its own records unit.
- An arrest by the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (716) 938-2220, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Cattaraugus County Supreme and County Courts it is kept by the County Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at cattco.gov/courts, phone 716-379-6614, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
The Cattaraugus County guide covers every agency in the county: Cattaraugus County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Olean each year?
Olean reported 787 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Olean?
Look on the custody page of the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.cattco.gov/inmateSearch. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Olean booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Olean?
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 Olean?
From the agency that made the arrest: the agency that reports for Olean for its own arrests, the Cattaraugus 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.
Is this the official Olean 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.