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 September 28, 2026.
Montgomery County, New York, has about 50,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and four 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 Montgomery 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: Montgomery County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Montgomery County
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Montgomery County. It reported 539 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Montgomery County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Amsterdam, 18,169 residents: 747 arrests reported for 2025.
- Canajoharie, 2,064 residents: 57 arrests reported for 2024.
- Fort Plain, 2,002 residents: 19 arrests reported for 2025.
- St. Johnsville, 1,711 residents: 23 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 Montgomery County
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.
- Amsterdam: 747 for 2025, 714 for 2023, 606 for 2022 and 508 for 2020; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Montgomery County Sheriff's Office: 539 for 2025, 401 for 2024, 322 for 2023, 457 for 2022, 383 for 2021 and 453 for 2020.
- St. Johnsville: 23 for 2025, 14 for 2024, 27 for 2023, 39 for 2022, 16 for 2020 and 43 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Fort Plain: 19 for 2025, 4 for 2024, 46 for 2022, 64 for 2020 and 88 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
- Canajoharie: 57 for 2024, 26 for 2022, 89 for 2020 and 96 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,328 arrests that year. The three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 581 in 2025 against 419 in 2024, up 39 percent.
Through March 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 153 arrests, against 143 in the same months of 2025.
Canajoharie reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Montgomery County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Montgomery 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 120 people on an average day, up from about 110 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 177 beds, and it ran at 61 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 Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at mcsojail.countygovservices.com/Home/CurrentInmates (page title: Current Inmates | Montgomery County Sheriff's Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 28, 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 Montgomery County
Whether someone was arrested in Montgomery County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Montgomery County Supreme and County Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at montgomerycountyny.gov/web/sites/departments/countyclerk/contact.asp, phone 518-853-8111); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at montgomerycountyny.gov/web/sites/departments/districtattorney/conta..., phone 518-853-8250).
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 Montgomery County
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. 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 Montgomery County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Amsterdam, Canajoharie, Fort Plain or St. Johnsville: 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, 518-853-8250, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Montgomery County Supreme and County Courts, through the court records page at montgomerycountyny.gov, phone 518-853-8111.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at montgomerycountyny.gov (page title: Montgomery County, NY).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Cities in Montgomery County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the 11 cities in Montgomery County: Amsterdam, Canajoharie, Fort Plain and St. Johnsville. Hagaman, Palatine Bridge, Fultonville, Fonda, Nelliston, Fort Johnson and Ames 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 Montgomery County Supreme and County Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Montgomery County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Amsterdam (18,169)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Montgomery County each year?
Amsterdam reported 747 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,328 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Montgomery County?
Look on the custody page of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at mcsojail.countygovservices.com. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Montgomery County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Montgomery 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 Montgomery County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Montgomery 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 montgomerycountyny.gov.
Is this the official Montgomery 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.