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 on September 25, 2026.
Allentown, Pennsylvania, in Lehigh County, has about 127,000 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 Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas. 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: Allentown public records, Lehigh County arrest records, Pennsylvania arrest records and Pennsylvania inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Allentown
The FBI lists Allentown with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Allentown Police Department. It reported 3,122 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 Lehigh County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 0 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Lehigh County: Lehigh County District Attorney and Lehigh Valley International Airport (other); DeSales University, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute and Pennsylvania State University at Lehigh Valley (campus police); the Bureau of Forestry in Lehigh County and the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Lehigh County (state agency); the Lehigh County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Allentown Reports
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.
- Allentown: 3,122 for 2025, 4,009 for 2024, 5,400 for 2023, 3,645 for 2020 and 4,823 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Allentown's 3,122 arrests in 2025 were down 22 percent from 4,009 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Allentown reported 1,841 arrests, against 1,998 in the same months of 2025.
Across Lehigh County, the 12 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,239 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Allentown Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Allentown 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 780 people, up from about 760 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,363 beds, and it ran at 57 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at inmatelocator.cor.pa.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Allentown
For Allentown the place to look is UJS Web Portal, the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search, which shows whether charges were filed.
Pennsylvania is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: PATCH lets anyone request a criminal record check by name online, for $22 a search, through the Pennsylvania State Police. 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 Allentown
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 Right-to-Know Law the agency must answer within 5 business days, with a 30-day extension, and it may charge copying at 25 cents a page.
- An arrest by the Allentown police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at allentownpa.gov/en-us/Government/Departments/Police/Administration/... (page title: Police Records), phone 610-437-7753, 425 Hamilton Street Allentown, PA 18101, Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Lehigh County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Lehigh County guide covers every agency in the county: Lehigh County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Allentown each year?
Allentown reported 3,122 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Allentown booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lehigh County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Allentown?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Pennsylvania State Police: PATCH lets anyone request a criminal record check by name online, for $22. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Right-to-Know Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Allentown?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Allentown police for its own arrests, the Lehigh County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Right-to-Know Law the answer is due within 5 business days, with a 30-day extension.
Is this the official Allentown 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.