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 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Rochester, New York, in Monroe County, has about 207,000 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 Monroe 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: Rochester public records, Monroe County arrest records, New York arrest records and New York inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Rochester
The FBI lists Rochester with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Rochester Police Department. It reported 4,785 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 Monroe County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 2,398 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Monroe County: the Brockport State University of New York Police (campus police).
How Many Arrests Rochester 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.
- Rochester: 4,785 for 2025, 5,097 for 2024, 4,969 for 2023, 4,688 for 2022, 6,369 for 2020 and 7,688 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Rochester's 4,785 arrests in 2025 were down 6.1 percent from 5,097 in 2024.
Through June 2026, Rochester reported 2,492 arrests, against 2,277 in the same months of 2025.
Across Monroe County, the 11 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 11,822 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Rochester Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Rochester 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.
So far in 2026 the jail has held about 750 people on an average day, down from about 980 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,614 beds, and it ran at 46 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Rochester
An arrest in Rochester can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: 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 monroecounty.gov/da, phone 585 753-4500).
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 Rochester
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 Rochester police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at troopers.ny.gov/request-records (page title: Request Records | New York State Police), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
- An arrest by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 585 753-4500, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at monroecounty.gov/clerk-order (page title: Monroe County, NY | Clerk's Office Online Document Request Form).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
The Monroe County guide covers every agency in the county: Monroe County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Rochester each year?
Rochester reported 4,785 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Rochester booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Rochester?
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 Rochester?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Rochester police for its own arrests, the Monroe 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 monroecounty.gov/clerk-order.
Is this the official Rochester 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.