Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 24, 2026 and September 28, 2026.
Ponca City, Oklahoma, in Kay County, has about 24,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city 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 Kay County District Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Ponca City public records, Kay County arrest records, Oklahoma arrest records and Oklahoma inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Ponca City
The FBI lists Ponca City with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Ponca City Police Department. It reported 743 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Kay County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 120 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Kay County: District Attorneys Council at Drug Task Force 8 (other).
How Many Arrests Ponca City Reports
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.
- Ponca City: 743 for 2025, 783 for 2024, 868 for 2023, 711 for 2022, 703 for 2021 and 645 for 2020.
Ponca City's 743 arrests in 2025 were down 5.1 percent from 783 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Ponca City reported 439 arrests, against 421 in the same months of 2025.
Across Kay County, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,034 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Ponca City Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Ponca City 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 310 people, up from about 250 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 361 beds, and it ran at 70 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 Kay County Sheriff's Office at courthouse.kay.ok.us/176/Kay-County-Sheriffs-Office (page title: Kay County Sheriff's Office | Kay County, OK), phone 580-362-3250, 1101 W Dry Road Newkirk, OK 74647, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 28, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at okoffender.doc.ok.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Ponca City
For Ponca City the place to look is the case index of the Kay County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at courthouse.kay.ok.us).
Statewide, OSCN and ODCR is the free online dockets of every Oklahoma district court.
Oklahoma is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: anyone can order a name-based criminal history search online, for $15 a search, through the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. 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 Ponca City
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 Oklahoma Open Records Act the agency must answer promptly; the statute sets no number of days, and it may charge copying at no more than 25 cents a page.
- An arrest by the Ponca City police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at poncacityok.gov/768/Contact-The-Ponca-City-Police-Department (page title: Contact The Ponca City Police Department | Ponca City, OK), phone 580-767-0370, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Kay County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 580-362-3250.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Kay County District Court, through the court records page at courthouse.kay.ok.us.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Kay County guide covers every agency in the county: Kay County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Ponca City each year?
Ponca City reported 743 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Ponca City?
Ask the Kay County Sheriff's Office at 580-362-3250; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at courthouse.kay.ok.us.
Where are people arrested in Ponca City booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Kay County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Ponca City?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation: anyone can order a name-based criminal history search online, for $15. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Ponca City?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Ponca City police for its own arrests, the Kay County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Oklahoma Open Records Act the answer is due promptly; the statute sets no number of days.
Is this the official Ponca City website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.