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.
St. Lawrence County, New York, has about 106,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office, seven 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 St. Lawrence 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: St. Lawrence County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in St. Lawrence County
The St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for St. Lawrence County. It reported 321 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside six 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:
- Massena, 9,998 residents: 403 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ogdensburg, 9,282 residents: 536 arrests reported for 2025.
- Potsdam, 8,162 residents: 162 arrests reported for 2025.
- Canton, 6,957 residents: 92 arrests reported for 2025.
- Gouverneur, 3,587 residents: 171 arrests reported for 2025.
- Norwood, 1,533 residents: 15 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 St. Lawrence County: the Potsdam State University of New York Police and the Canton State University of New York Police (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in St. Lawrence 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.
- Ogdensburg: 536 for 2025, 560 for 2024, 576 for 2023, 470 for 2022, 552 for 2021 and 392 for 2020.
- Massena: 403 for 2025, 332 for 2024, 341 for 2023, 337 for 2022 and 263 for 2021.
- St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office: 321 for 2025, 301 for 2024, 286 for 2023, 307 for 2022 and 332 for 2021.
- Gouverneur: 171 for 2025, 204 for 2024, 120 for 2023, 128 for 2022 and 87 for 2021.
- Potsdam: 162 for 2025, 165 for 2024, 207 for 2023, 192 for 2022, 163 for 2021 and 76 for 2020.
- Canton: 92 for 2025, 120 for 2024, 117 for 2023, 112 for 2022, 97 for 2020 and 177 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Norwood: 15 for 2025, 23 for 2024, 15 for 2020 and 17 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Norfolk Town: 5 for 2025, 7 for 2024, 5 for 2023, 5 for 2022, 16 for 2020 and 32 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the eight agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,705 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,705 in 2025 against 1,712 in 2024, down 0.4 percent.
Through June 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 700 arrests, against 897 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in St. Lawrence County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in St. Lawrence 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 130 people on an average day, up from about 100 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 186 beds, and it ran at 56 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 St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office at stlawco.gov/Departments/Sheriff/CorrectionalDivision (page title: Correctional Division | St. Lawrence County), phone (315) 379-2367, 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 St. Lawrence County
Whether someone was arrested in St. Lawrence County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the St. Lawrence County Supreme and County Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at stlawco.gov/Departments/CountyClerk/CourtRecords, phone 315-379-2237); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at stlawco.gov/Departments/DistrictAttorney).
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 St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (315) 379-2367.
- An arrest in Massena, Ogdensburg, Potsdam, Canton, Gouverneur or Norwood: 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 Potsdam State University of New York Police or the Canton 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 handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the St. Lawrence County Supreme and County Courts, through the court records page at stlawco.gov, phone 315-379-2237.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Cities in St. Lawrence County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the 11 cities in St. Lawrence County: Massena, Ogdensburg, Potsdam, Canton, Gouverneur and Norwood. Waddington, Heuvelton, Rensselaer Falls, Hammond and Richville have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Norfolk Town Police Department as a city agency in St. Lawrence County; Norfolk Town 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 St. Lawrence County Supreme and County Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in St. Lawrence County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Massena (9,998)
- Ogdensburg (9,282)
- Canton (6,957)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in St. Lawrence County each year?
Ogdensburg reported 536 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the eight agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,705 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in St. Lawrence County?
Ask the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office at (315) 379-2367; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at stlawco.gov.
Where are people arrested in St. Lawrence County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence 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.