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 25, 2026.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in Northampton County, has about 79,000 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 Northampton 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: Bethlehem public records, Northampton County arrest records, Pennsylvania arrest records and Pennsylvania inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Bethlehem
The FBI lists Bethlehem with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Bethlehem Township Police Department. It reported 502 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 Northampton County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 9 arrests for 2024.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Northampton County: County Detective in Northampton County (other); Lehigh University, Moravian College and Lafayette College (campus police); the State Park Rangers at Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, the Bureau of Forestry in Northampton County and the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Northampton County (state agency); the Northampton County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Bethlehem (township) 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.
- Bethlehem (township): 502 for 2025, 483 for 2024 and 423 for 2023.
Bethlehem (township)'s 502 arrests in 2025 were up 3.9 percent from 483 in 2024.
Across Northampton County, the 25 agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 5,473 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bethlehem Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Bethlehem 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 570 people, down from about 670 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 838 beds, and it ran at 68 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 Northampton County Sheriff's Office at norcopa.gov/sheriffs-department (page title: Northampton County, PA), phone (610) 829-6501, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Bethlehem
Whether someone was arrested in Bethlehem, and what came of it, shows up in two places: UJS Web Portal, the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search, which shows whether charges were filed; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at norcopa.gov/district-attorney, phone (610) 829-6630).
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 Bethlehem
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 Bethlehem police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at bethlehem-pa.gov/police/forms-reports (page title: Police Department | City of Bethlehem | City of Bethlehem), phone 610-865-7000, 10 E. Church St Bethlehem, PA 18018, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Northampton County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (610) 829-6501.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (610) 829-6630, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Northampton County guide covers every agency in the county: Northampton County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bethlehem each year?
Bethlehem (township) reported 502 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bethlehem?
Ask the Northampton County Sheriff's Office at (610) 829-6501; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at norcopa.gov/sheriffs-department.
Where are people arrested in Bethlehem booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Northampton County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bethlehem?
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 Bethlehem?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bethlehem police for its own arrests, the Northampton 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 Bethlehem 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.