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 between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Lewis County, New York, has about 27,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and one city 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 Lewis 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: Lewis County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lewis County
The Lewis County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lewis County. It reported 193 arrests for 2025.
One city in Lewis County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Lowville, 3,336 residents: 45 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Lewis 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.
- Lewis County Sheriff's Office: 193 for 2025, 209 for 2024, 165 for 2023, 202 for 2022, 159 for 2021 and 272 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Lowville: 45 for 2024, 43 for 2022, 68 for 2020 and 86 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 254 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 209 in 2024 against 165 in 2023, up 27 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lewis County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Lewis 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 29 people on an average day, down from about 34 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2022, the last year with a capacity figure, was 42 beds, and it ran at 62 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 Lewis County Sheriff's Office at lewiscountyny.org (page title: About Lewis County Jail, New York | Inmate Search), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Lewis County
An arrest in Lewis County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Lewis County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Lewis 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 lewiscountyny.gov/departments/district-attorney, phone 315-376-5390).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at lewiscountyny.gov/departments/lewis-county-courts (page title: Equal Justice, Respect, Dignity, No Bias: Lewis County Courts), belongs to a lower court, not to the Lewis 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 Lewis 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 Lewis County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Lowville: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 315-376-5390, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Lewis County Supreme and County Courts it is kept by the County Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at lewiscountyny.gov, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Cities in Lewis County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the eight cities in Lewis County: Lowville. Copenhagen, Croghan, Lyons Falls, Port Leyden, Castorland, Constableville and Turin 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 Lewis County Supreme and County Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lewis County each year?
The Lewis County Sheriff's Office reported 193 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Lewis County sent in full, the two with every month on file reported 254 between them.
Where are people arrested in Lewis County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lewis 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 Lewis County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lewis 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 Lewis 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.