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 between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Carbon County, Pennsylvania, has about 66,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Carbon County Sheriff's Office, 12 city agencies and five 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 Carbon 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: Carbon County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Carbon County
The Carbon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Carbon County.
Arrests inside nine 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:
- Palmerton, 5,634 residents: 90 arrests reported for 2024.
- Lehighton, 5,262 residents: 193 arrests reported for 2025.
- Jim Thorpe, 4,543 residents: 41 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lansford, 4,143 residents: 167 arrests reported for 2025.
- Nesquehoning, 3,343 residents: 31 arrests reported for 2025.
- Summit Hill, 3,135 residents: 14 arrests reported for 2025.
- Weatherly, 2,549 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Beaver Meadows, 896 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2024.
- Weissport, 412 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 FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Carbon County: the State Park Rangers at Hickory Run, the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Carbon County and the State Park Rangers at Beltzville (state agency); the Carbon County State Police (state police); Reading Northern Railroad in Carbon County (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Carbon 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.
- Lehighton: 193 for 2025, 272 for 2024, 269 for 2020 and 484 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Lansford: 167 for 2025, 173 for 2023, 205 for 2020 and 455 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Jim Thorpe: 41 for 2025, 31 for 2024 and 121 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Franklin Township: 41 for 2025, 41 for 2024, 64 for 2020 and 48 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Nesquehoning: 31 for 2025, 58 for 2024 and 83 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Kidder Township: 18 for 2025, 14 for 2024 and 50 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Summit Hill: 14 for 2025, 21 for 2024 and 111 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Weatherly: 0 for 2025, 4 for 2024, 23 for 2023, 17 for 2020 and 38 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Weissport: 0 for 2025, 11 for 2024, 6 for 2023, 1 for 2022 and 42 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Mahoning Township: 101 for 2023, 174 for 2020 and 146 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Palmerton: 90 for 2024, 94 for 2020 and 171 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Beaver Meadows: 0 for 2024 and 0 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the nine agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 505 arrests that year. The eight of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 338 in 2025 against 452 in 2024, down 25 percent.
Palmerton, Beaver Meadows and Mahoning Township reported only part of 2025 (11 months, 11 months and 9 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Carbon County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Carbon 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 140 people, down from about 250 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 248 beds, and it ran at 56 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 Carbon County Sheriff's Office at carboncountysheriff.com (page title: Carbon County Sheriff's), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections lists its inmates at inmatelocator.cor.pa.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Carbon County
An arrest in Carbon County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at carboncourts.com/publicaccess.htm); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at carboncourts.com/DA.HTM, phone 570-325-2718).
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 Carbon 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 Carbon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Lansford, Nesquehoning, Summit Hill 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 the State Park Rangers at Hickory Run, the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Carbon County or the Carbon County State Police: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 570-325-2718, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at carboncourts.com/publicaccess.htm.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Carbon County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for nine of the 12 cities in Carbon County: Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Lansford, Nesquehoning, Summit Hill, Weatherly, Beaver Meadows and Weissport. Bowmanstown, Parryville and East Side have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries Franklin Township Police Department, Carbon County, Mahoning Township Police Department, Carbon County and the Kidder Township Police Department as city agencies in Carbon County; Franklin Township, Mahoning Township and Kidder Township 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 Carbon County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Carbon County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Lehighton (5,262)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Carbon County each year?
Lehighton reported 193 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the nine agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 505 between them.
Where are people arrested in Carbon County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Carbon County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Carbon 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 Carbon County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Carbon 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.
Is this the official Carbon 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.