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 23, 2026.
Albany County, New York, has about 320,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Albany County Sheriff's Office, ten city agencies and two campus 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 Albany County Supreme and County Courts. 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: Albany County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Albany County
The Albany County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Albany County. It reported 475 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside seven 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:
- Albany, 101,317 residents: 1,733 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cohoes, 18,530 residents: 531 arrests reported for 2025.
- Watervliet, 10,268 residents: 358 arrests reported for 2025.
- Colonie, 7,691 residents: 1,673 arrests reported for 2025.
- Menands, 4,501 residents: 167 arrests reported for 2025.
- Green Island, 2,971 residents.
- Altamont, 1,651 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.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Albany County: the Albany State University of New York Police and the State University of New York at Albany (Plaza) (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Albany 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.
- Albany: 1,733 for 2025, 1,671 for 2024, 1,741 for 2023, 1,403 for 2022, 1,162 for 2021 and 1,148 for 2020.
- Colonie: 1,673 for 2025, 1,539 for 2024, 1,061 for 2023, 889 for 2022, 717 for 2021 and 1,474 for 2020.
- Cohoes: 531 for 2025, 450 for 2024, 529 for 2023 and 434 for 2022.
- Albany County Sheriff's Office: 475 for 2025, 697 for 2024 and 584 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Guilderland Town: 445 for 2025, 487 for 2024, 398 for 2023 and 408 for 2022.
- Bethlehem Town: 398 for 2025, 345 for 2024, 320 for 2023, 328 for 2022, 206 for 2021 and 355 for 2020.
- Watervliet: 358 for 2025, 420 for 2024 and 401 for 2023.
- Menands: 167 for 2025, 95 for 2022, 84 for 2020 and 111 for 2019; 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Altamont: 0 for 2025, 7 for 2024, 2 for 2023, 1 for 2022 and 33 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Coeymans Town: 75 for 2023, 33 for 2022, 72 for 2020 and 85 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the nine agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,780 arrests that year. The eight of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,613 in 2025 against 5,616 in 2024, down 0.1 percent.
Coeymans Town reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Albany County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Albany 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.
So far in 2026 the jail has held about 570 people on an average day, up from about 490 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 938 beds, and it ran at 48 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 Albany County Sheriff's Office at albanycountyny.gov/sheriff (page title: County Sheriff | Albany County, NY), 996 Madison Avenue, Room 120 Albany, NY 12208, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Albany County
Whether someone was arrested in Albany County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Albany County Supreme and County Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at albanycountyny.gov/clerk-recordssearch, phone (518) 487-5100); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at albanycountyny.gov/da, phone (518) 487-5460).
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 Albany County
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 Albany County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Albany, Cohoes, Watervliet, Colonie, Menands, Green Island or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by the Albany State University of New York Police or the State University of New York at Albany (Plaza): the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (518) 487-5460, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Albany County Supreme and County Courts, through the court records page at albanycountyny.gov/clerk-recordssearch, phone (518) 487-5100.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at albanycounty.nextrequest.com (page title: Open Public RecordsNextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Cities in Albany County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the nine cities in Albany County: Albany, Cohoes, Watervliet, Colonie, Menands, Green Island and Altamont. Ravena and Voorheesville have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Bethlehem Town Police Department, the Coeymans Town Police Department and the Guilderland Town Police Department as city agencies in Albany County; Bethlehem Town, Coeymans Town and Guilderland Town are not among the cities above.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Albany County Supreme and County Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Albany County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Cohoes (18,530)
- Watervliet (10,268)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Albany County each year?
Albany reported 1,733 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the nine agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,780 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Albany County?
Ask the Albany County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at albanycountyny.gov/sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Albany County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Albany County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Albany County?
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 Albany County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Albany County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 albanycounty.nextrequest.com.
Is this the official Albany 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.