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 24, 2026 and October 9, 2026.
Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, has about 74,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office, five 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the Pottawatomie County District Court. 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: Pottawatomie County public records, Oklahoma arrest records, Oklahoma inmate search and Oklahoma criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Pottawatomie County
The Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Pottawatomie County. It reported 230 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists five cities in Pottawatomie County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Shawnee, 32,092 residents: 401 arrests reported for 2025.
- Tecumseh, 6,370 residents: 155 arrests reported for 2025.
- McLoud, 4,519 residents: 79 arrests reported for 2025.
- Maud, 868 residents: 6 arrests reported for 2025.
- Earlsboro, 611 residents: 17 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 Prague Police Department and the Oklahoma City Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Pottawatomie County, so their arrests are not broken out for Pottawatomie County here.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Pottawatomie County: District Attorneys Council at Drug Task Force 23 (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Pottawatomie 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.
- Shawnee: 401 for 2025, 419 for 2024, 491 for 2023, 620 for 2022, 617 for 2021 and 1,768 for 2020.
- Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office: 230 for 2025, 144 for 2024, 105 for 2023, 172 for 2022, 143 for 2021 and 120 for 2020.
- Tecumseh: 155 for 2025, 141 for 2024, 145 for 2023, 235 for 2022, 228 for 2021 and 196 for 2020.
- McLoud: 79 for 2025, 117 for 2024, 131 for 2023, 62 for 2022, 66 for 2021 and 71 for 2020.
- Earlsboro: 17 for 2025, 18 for 2024, 28 for 2023, 24 for 2022 and 31 for 2021.
- Maud: 6 for 2025, 2 for 2024, 3 for 2023, 7 for 2022, 4 for 2021 and 0 for 2020.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 888 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 888 in 2025 against 841 in 2024, up 5.6 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 476 arrests, against 502 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Pottawatomie County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Pottawatomie 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 2024 the jail held about 320 people, up from about 300 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 366 beds, and it ran at 96 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 Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office at pottawatomiecountyok.com/oklahoma/pottawatomie-county-jail (page title: Pottawatomie County Jail, OK Inmates, Arrests, Mugshot Lookup), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Oklahoma Department of Corrections lists its inmates at okoffender.doc.ok.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Pottawatomie County
An arrest in Pottawatomie County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Pottawatomie County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at oscn.net/dockets/Search.aspx).
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 Pottawatomie 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 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 Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Shawnee, Tecumseh, McLoud, Maud or Earlsboro: 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 District Attorneys Council at Drug Task Force 23: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Pottawatomie County District Court, through the court records page at oscn.net/dockets/Search.aspx.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The other Pottawatomie County guides go further: warrants, criminal records, court records, police reports, traffic tickets, divorce records and property records.
Cities in Pottawatomie County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the 14 cities in Pottawatomie County: Shawnee, Tecumseh, McLoud, Maud and Earlsboro. Bethel Acres, Pink, Johnson, Asher, Tribbey, Wanette, St. Louis, Brooksville and Macomb 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 Pottawatomie County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County each year?
Shawnee reported 401 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 888 between them.
Where are people arrested in Pottawatomie County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Pottawatomie County?
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 Pottawatomie County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Oklahoma Open Records Act the answer is due promptly; the statute sets no number of days.
Is this the official Pottawatomie 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.