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.
Cortland County, New York, has about 46,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Cortland County Sheriff's Office, two city agencies and one campus agency. 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 Cortland 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: Cortland County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Cortland County
The Cortland County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Cortland County. It reported 409 arrests for 2025.
One city in Cortland County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Cortland, 17,459 residents: 687 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 one more agency in Cortland County: the Cortland State University of New York Police (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Cortland 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.
- Cortland: 687 for 2025, 686 for 2024, 677 for 2023, 682 for 2022, 548 for 2020 and 1,017 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Cortland County Sheriff's Office: 409 for 2025, 459 for 2024, 497 for 2023 and 441 for 2022.
- Homer Village: 25 for 2025, 32 for 2024, 50 for 2023, 44 for 2022, 25 for 2020 and 30 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,121 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,121 in 2025 against 1,177 in 2024, down 4.8 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Cortland County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Cortland County 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 59 people on an average day, up from about 57 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 89 beds, and it ran at 64 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 Cortland County Sheriff's Office at cortlandcountysheriffny.gov (page title: Cortland County Sheriff (NY)), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Cortland County
An arrest in Cortland County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Cortland 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 cortlandcountyny.gov/239/District-Attorneys-Office, phone 607-753-5008).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at cortlandcountyny.gov/173/Courts-Supreme-County (page title: Supreme & County Courts | Cortland County, NY), phone 607-753-5021, belongs to a lower court, not to the Cortland 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 Cortland 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 Cortland County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Cortland: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Cortland State University of New York Police: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 607-753-5008, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Cortland County Supreme and County Courts it is kept by the County Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at cortlandcountyny.gov, phone 607-753-5021, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Cities in Cortland County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the four cities in Cortland County: Cortland. Homer, McGraw and Marathon have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Homer Village Police Department as a city agency in Cortland County; Homer Village is 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 Cortland County Supreme and County Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Cortland County each year?
Cortland reported 687 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,121 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Cortland County?
Ask the Cortland County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at cortlandcountysheriffny.gov.
Where are people arrested in Cortland County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Cortland County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Cortland 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 Cortland County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Cortland 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 Cortland 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.