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 on September 23, 2026.
Berks County, Pennsylvania, has about 439,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Berks County Sheriff's Office, 31 city agencies and eight campus, state or other agencies. 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 Berks County Court of Common Pleas. 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: Berks County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Berks County
The Berks County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Berks County. It reported 149 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists 13 cities in Berks County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:
- Reading, 96,000 residents: 2,337 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wyomissing, 11,292 residents: 428 arrests reported for 2025.
- Shillington, 5,533 residents: 7 arrests reported for 2025.
- Birdsboro, 5,163 residents: 18 arrests reported for 2025.
- West Reading, 4,600 residents: 289 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hamburg, 4,552 residents: 156 arrests reported for 2025.
- Laureldale, 4,344 residents: 63 arrests reported for 2025.
- Sinking Spring, 4,327 residents: 52 arrests reported for 2025.
- Kutztown, 4,214 residents.
- Fleetwood, 4,101 residents: 143 arrests reported for 2025.
- Womelsdorf, 2,952 residents: 69 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mohnton, 2,949 residents: 21 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 FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Berks County: County Detective in Berks County and Reading Northern Railroad in Berks County (other); Kutztown University and Pennsylvania State University at Berks (campus police); the State Park Rangers at French Creek, the Bureau of Forestry in Berks County and the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Berks County (state agency); the Berks County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Berks County
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.
- Reading: 2,337 for 2025, 2,231 for 2024, 2,484 for 2023 and 3,504 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Exeter Township: 1,007 for 2025, 1,248 for 2024, 805 for 2020 and 846 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Wyomissing: 428 for 2025, 452 for 2024 and 220 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Cumru Township: 293 for 2025, 370 for 2020 and 324 for 2019; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- West Reading: 289 for 2025, 284 for 2024, 659 for 2020 and 598 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Caernarvon Township: 288 for 2025, 247 for 2024, 229 for 2023 and 179 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Hamburg: 156 for 2025, 200 for 2024 and 183 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Berks County Sheriff's Office: 149 for 2025, 143 for 2024 and 299 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Fleetwood: 143 for 2025, 133 for 2024 and 67 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Bern Township: 122 for 2025 and 145 for 2020; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Northern Berks Regional: 120 for 2025, 131 for 2024 and 231 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Womelsdorf: 69 for 2025, 62 for 2024, 48 for 2023, 50 for 2022, 29 for 2020 and 34 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the 24 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,758 arrests that year. The 21 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,301 in 2025 against 5,511 in 2024, down 3.8 percent.
Through May 2026, the 18 agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,997 arrests, against 2,001 in the same months of 2025.
Central Berks Regional, South Heidelberg Township, Amity Township, Eastern Berks Regional and four more reported only part of 2025 (11 months, 11 months, 10 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Berks County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Berks 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 720 people, down from about 1,040 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,396 beds, and it ran at 54 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 Berks County Sheriff's Office at berkspa.gov/departments/jail-system/inmate-services (page title: Berks County | Inmate Services), 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 Berks County
Whether someone was arrested in Berks County, 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 berkspa.gov/departments/da, phone 610-478-6000).
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 Berks 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 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 Berks County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Reading, Wyomissing, Shillington, Birdsboro, West Reading, Hamburg or another of the cities listed above: 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 County Detective in Berks County, Kutztown University or the State Park Rangers at French Creek: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 610-478-6000, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at berkspa.gov (page title: Berks County | County Open Records Office Information).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Berks County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 13 of the 28 cities in Berks County: the twelve named above and Bally. Boyertown, Mount Penn, Kenhorst, Wernersville, Robesonia, Topton, Leesport, St. Lawrence, Shoemakersville, Bernville, Bechtelsville, Lyons and three more have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries Douglass Township Police Department, Berks County, the Central Berks Regional Police Department, the Lower Heidelberg Township Police Department and 15 more as city agencies in Berks County; Douglass Township, Central Berks Regional, Lower Heidelberg Township and 15 more are not among the cities above.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Berks County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Berks County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Reading (96,000)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Berks County each year?
Reading reported 2,337 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 24 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,758 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Berks County?
Ask the Berks County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at berkspa.gov.
Where are people arrested in Berks County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Berks County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Berks County?
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 Berks County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Berks County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Right-to-Know Law the answer is due within 5 business days, with a 30-day extension; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at berkspa.gov.
Is this the official Berks 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.