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.
Delaware County, Ohio, has about 238,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Delaware County Sheriff's Office, seven city agencies and one other 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. 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: Delaware County public records, Ohio arrest records, Ohio inmate search and Ohio criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Delaware County
The Delaware County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Delaware County. It reported 624 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:
- Delaware, 46,521 residents: 650 arrests reported for 2025.
- Powell, 14,613 residents: 116 arrests reported for 2025.
- Sunbury, 9,705 residents: 38 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ashley, 1,350 residents: 10 arrests reported for 2021.
- Ostrander, 1,227 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
- Shawnee Hills, 939 residents.
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 Westerville Police Department, the Dublin Police Department and the Columbus Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Delaware County, so their arrests are not broken out for Delaware County here.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Delaware County: Preservation Parks of Delaware County (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Delaware 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.
- Ostrander: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Delaware: 650 for 2025, 628 for 2024, 573 for 2023, 511 for 2022, 1,100 for 2020 and 1,640 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Delaware County Sheriff's Office: 624 for 2025, 640 for 2024, 640 for 2023, 486 for 2022, 543 for 2021 and 468 for 2020.
- Powell: 116 for 2025, 44 for 2023, 58 for 2021 and 59 for 2019; 2020, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Sunbury: 38 for 2025, 35 for 2024, 27 for 2023 and 17 for 2022.
- Genoa Township: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024 and 0 for 2023.
- Ashley: 10 for 2021.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,580 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,464 in 2025 against 2,455 in 2024, up 0.4 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,343 arrests, against 1,459 in the same months of 2025.
Ashley and Shawnee Hills reported only part of 2025 (2 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Delaware County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Delaware 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.
On an average day in 2023 the jail held about 130 people, down from about 200 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 286 beds, and it ran at 45 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 Delaware County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.co.delaware.oh.us/jtlist (page title: Current Inmate Listing | Delaware County Jail | Sheriff), phone (740) 203-1550, 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 Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction lists its inmates at appgateway.drc.ohio.gov/OffenderSearch.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Delaware County
Whether someone was arrested in Delaware County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at clerkofcourts.co.delaware.oh.us, phone (740) 833-2500); the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at prosecutor.co.delaware.oh.us).
Ohio does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court's own case index is the public record of an arrest that led to a charge.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Delaware 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 Ohio Public Records Act the agency must answer promptly, within a reasonable period of time, and it may charge the actual cost of copying.
- An arrest by the Delaware County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (740) 203-1550.
- An arrest in Delaware, Powell, Sunbury, Ashley, Ostrander or Shawnee Hills: 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 Preservation Parks of Delaware County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at clerkofcourts.co.delaware.oh.us, phone (740) 833-2500.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at co.delaware.oh.us (page title: Delaware County Public Records Requests | Delaware County).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based WebCheck at any WebCheck location.
Cities in Delaware County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the seven cities in Delaware County: Delaware, Powell, Sunbury, Ashley, Ostrander and Shawnee Hills. Galena has no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Genoa Township Police Department as a city agency in Delaware County; Genoa Township 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 Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Delaware County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Delaware County each year?
Ostrander reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,580 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Delaware County?
Look on the custody page of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.co.delaware.oh.us/jtlist, or call (740) 203-1550. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Delaware County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Delaware County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Delaware County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Ohio Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Delaware County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Delaware County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Ohio Public Records Act the answer is due promptly, within a reasonable period of time; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at co.delaware.oh.us.
Is this the official Delaware 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.