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.
Butler County, Pennsylvania, has about 199,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Butler County Sheriff's Office, 17 city agencies and nine 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 Butler 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: Butler County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Butler County
The Butler County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Butler County. It reported 2 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
Arrests inside ten of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Butler (township), 13,010 residents: 392 arrests reported for 2025.
- Butler, 13,010 residents: 569 arrests reported for 2025.
- Zelienople, 3,769 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Slippery Rock, 3,558 residents: 96 arrests reported for 2024.
- Evans City, 1,686 residents.
- Mars, 1,415 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Saxonburg, 1,378 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Prospect, 1,082 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2025.
- Harrisville, 792 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Callery, 346 residents: 0 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 Northern Regional Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Butler County, so its arrests are not broken out for Butler County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Butler County: Butler County Community College and Slippery Rock University (campus police); the State Park Rangers at Moraine, the State Park Rangers at Jennings Environmental Education Center, the Bureau of Forestry in Butler County and the Office of Attorney General Region 3 in Butler County (state agency); the Mars Area School District and County Detective in Butler County (other); the Butler County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Butler 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.
- Butler: 569 for 2025, 408 for 2024, 540 for 2023, 790 for 2020 and 767 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Cranberry Township: 459 for 2025, 369 for 2024, 352 for 2023 and 327 for 2022.
- Butler (township): 392 for 2025, 462 for 2024, 602 for 2020 and 668 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Jackson Township: 92 for 2025, 99 for 2024 and 51 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Middlesex Township: 48 for 2025 and 83 for 2024.
- Adams Township: 34 for 2025, 31 for 2024, 110 for 2020 and 78 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Penn Township: 25 for 2025, 32 for 2024, 97 for 2020 and 89 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Buffalo Township: 24 for 2025, 19 for 2024 and 44 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Prospect: 2 for 2025, 0 for 2024, 0 for 2023, 0 for 2020 and 1 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Saxonburg: 0 for 2025, 3 for 2024 and 3 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Callery: 0 for 2025 and 1 for 2024.
- Lancaster Township: 0 for 2025, 1 for 2024, 3 for 2023, 4 for 2020 and 15 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the 15 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,645 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,645 in 2025 against 1,509 in 2024, up 9 percent.
Evans City, Slippery Rock and Butler County Sheriff's Office reported only part of 2025 (9 months, 9 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Butler County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Butler 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 2023 the jail held about 440 people, up from about 260 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 572 beds, and it ran at 77 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 Butler County Sheriff's Office at butlersheriff.org/jail-facilities (page title: Jail Facilities | Butler County Sheriff’s Office), 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 Butler County
Whether someone was arrested in Butler 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 butlercountypa.gov/416/District-Attorney, phone 724-284-5222).
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 Butler County
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 Butler County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Butler (township), Butler, Zelienople, Slippery Rock, Evans City, Mars or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by Butler County Community College, the State Park Rangers at Moraine or the State Park Rangers at Jennings Environmental Education Center: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 724-284-5222, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at butlercountypa.gov/492/Open-Records (page title: Open Records | Butler County, PA).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Butler County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for ten of the 24 cities in Butler County: Butler (township), Butler, Zelienople, Slippery Rock, Evans City, Mars, Saxonburg, Prospect, Harrisville and Callery. Seven Fields, Harmony, Chicora, Connoquenessing, East Butler, Valencia, Bruin, West Liberty, Eau Claire, Portersville, Fairview, West Sunbury and three more have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries Jackson Township Police Department, Butler County, Lancaster Township Police Department, Butler County, Adams Township Police Department, Butler County and four more as city agencies in Butler County; Jackson Township, Lancaster Township, Adams Township and four 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 Butler County Court of Common Pleas.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Butler County each year?
Butler reported 569 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 15 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,645 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Butler County?
Ask the Butler County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at butlersheriff.org/jail-facilities.
Where are people arrested in Butler County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Butler County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Butler 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 Butler County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Butler 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 butlercountypa.gov/492/Open-Records.
Is this the official Butler 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.