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.
Tompkins County, New York, has about 106,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office, five 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 Tompkins 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: Tompkins County public records, New York arrest records, New York inmate search and New York criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Tompkins County
The Tompkins County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Tompkins County. It reported 438 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists five cities in Tompkins County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Ithaca, 33,768 residents: 940 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cayuga Heights, 3,949 residents: 3 arrests reported for 2025.
- Groton, 2,127 residents: 26 arrests reported for 2025.
- Dryden, 1,877 residents: 18 arrests reported for 2024.
- Trumansburg, 1,787 residents: 8 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 Tompkins County: Ithaca College and Cornell University (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Tompkins 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.
- Ithaca: 940 for 2025, 952 for 2024, 716 for 2023, 717 for 2022 and 462 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
- Tompkins County Sheriff's Office: 438 for 2025, 444 for 2024, 411 for 2022 and 290 for 2020; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
- Groton: 26 for 2025, 21 for 2024, 22 for 2022, 66 for 2020 and 57 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
- Trumansburg: 8 for 2025, 5 for 2024, 10 for 2023, 2 for 2022, 15 for 2020 and 26 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Cayuga Heights: 3 for 2025, 13 for 2024, 7 for 2022, 49 for 2020 and 72 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
- Dryden: 18 for 2024, 18 for 2023, 34 for 2022, 31 for 2020 and 55 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,415 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,415 in 2025 against 1,435 in 2024, down 1.4 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 818 arrests, against 823 in the same months of 2025.
Dryden reported only part of 2025 (5 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Tompkins County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Tompkins 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 54 people on an average day, down from about 54 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 82 beds, and it ran at 66 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 Tompkins County Sheriff's Office at tompkinscountyny.gov/All-Departments/Sheriffs-Office/Corrections-Di... (page title: Corrections Division | Tompkins County), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Tompkins County
An arrest in Tompkins County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Tompkins County Supreme and County Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at tompkinscountyny.gov/All-Departments/County-Clerk/Civil-Services); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tompkinscountyny.gov/All-Departments/District-Attorney, phone (607) 274-5461).
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 Tompkins 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 Tompkins County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Ithaca, Cayuga Heights, Groton, Dryden or Trumansburg: 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 Ithaca College or Cornell University: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (607) 274-5461, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Tompkins County Supreme and County Courts, through the court records page at tompkinscountyny.gov.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based Record Review through the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Cities in Tompkins County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the seven cities in Tompkins County: Ithaca, Cayuga Heights, Groton, Dryden and Trumansburg. Lansing and Freeville 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 Tompkins County Supreme and County Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Tompkins County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Ithaca (33,768)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Tompkins County each year?
Ithaca reported 940 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,415 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Tompkins County?
Ask the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at tompkinscountyny.gov.
Where are people arrested in Tompkins County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Tompkins 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 Tompkins County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Tompkins 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 Tompkins 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.