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 23, 2026 and September 30, 2026.
Altoona, Pennsylvania, in Blair County, has about 43,000 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 Blair 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: Altoona public records, Blair County arrest records, Pennsylvania arrest records and Pennsylvania inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Altoona
The FBI lists Altoona with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Altoona Police Department. It reported 2,265 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 Blair County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 122 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Blair County: Pennsylvania State University at Altoona (campus police); the State Park Rangers at Canoe Creek, the Bureau of Forestry in Blair County and the Office of Attorney General Region 2 in Blair County (state agency); the Altoona School District (other); the Blair County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Altoona 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.
- Altoona: 2,265 for 2025, 1,962 for 2024, 2,448 for 2023 and 2,649 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Altoona's 2,265 arrests in 2025 were up 15 percent from 1,962 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Altoona reported 1,218 arrests, against 1,426 in the same months of 2025.
Across Blair County, the 13 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,934 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Altoona Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Altoona 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 340 people, up from about 330 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 350 beds, and it ran at 96 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 Altoona
Whether someone was arrested in Altoona, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Blair County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at ujsportal.pacourts.us/casesearch); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at blaircountypa.gov/courts/district-attorney, phone (814) 693-3010).
Statewide, UJS Web Portal is the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search.
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 Altoona
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. 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 Altoona police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at altoonapa.gov/departments/police/services (page title: Altoona Pa | Services), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Blair County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (814) 693-3010, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Blair County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at ujsportal.pacourts.us/casesearch.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Blair County guide covers every agency in the county: Blair County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Altoona each year?
Altoona reported 2,265 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Altoona booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Blair County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Altoona?
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 Altoona?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Altoona police for its own arrests, the Blair 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 Altoona 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.