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.
Cattaraugus County, New York, has about 75,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office and eight 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 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 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: Cattaraugus County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Cattaraugus County
The Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Cattaraugus County. It reported 494 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside eight 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:
- Olean, 13,614 residents: 787 arrests reported for 2025.
- Salamanca, 5,757 residents: 399 arrests reported for 2025.
- Gowanda, 2,474 residents: 143 arrests reported for 2019.
- Franklinville, 1,644 residents: 16 arrests reported for 2025.
- Allegany, 1,608 residents.
- Cattaraugus, 959 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Portville, 883 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ellicottville, 282 residents: 52 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 Cattaraugus 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.
- Olean: 787 for 2025, 851 for 2024, 675 for 2023, 578 for 2022, 391 for 2021 and 315 for 2020.
- Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office: 494 for 2025, 449 for 2024, 434 for 2023, 386 for 2022, 476 for 2021 and 486 for 2020.
- Salamanca: 399 for 2025, 506 for 2024, 450 for 2023, 505 for 2022 and 582 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
- Ellicottville: 52 for 2025, 46 for 2024, 62 for 2023, 29 for 2022, 25 for 2020 and 23 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Franklinville: 16 for 2025, 16 for 2024, 14 for 2023, 21 for 2022, 14 for 2020 and 18 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Cattaraugus: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2023, 0 for 2022, 5 for 2020 and 2 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Portville: 0 for 2025, 1 for 2024, 6 for 2023, 0 for 2022 and 0 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
- Gowanda: 143 for 2019.
Together, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,748 arrests that year. The six of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,748 in 2025 against 1,869 in 2024, down 6.5 percent.
Allegany and Gowanda reported only part of 2025 (9 months and 8 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Cattaraugus County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Cattaraugus 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 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 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 Cattaraugus County
Whether someone was arrested in Cattaraugus County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: 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 Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Olean, Salamanca, Gowanda, Franklinville, Allegany, Cattaraugus 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.
- 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.
Cities in Cattaraugus County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for eight of the 11 cities in Cattaraugus County: Olean, Salamanca, Gowanda, Franklinville, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Portville and Ellicottville. Little Valley, Delevan and South Dayton have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Cattaraugus County Supreme and County Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Cattaraugus County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Cattaraugus County each year?
Olean reported 787 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the seven agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,748 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Cattaraugus County?
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 Cattaraugus County 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 Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Cattaraugus 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.
Is this the official Cattaraugus 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.