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.
Centre County, Pennsylvania, has about 160,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Centre County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and six 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 Centre 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: Centre County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Centre County
The Centre County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Centre County. It reported 5 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Centre County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- State College, 41,228 residents: 1,114 arrests reported for 2024.
- Bellefonte, 5,986 residents.
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 Centre County: Pennsylvania State University at University Park (campus police); the State Park Rangers at Bald Eagle, the State Park Rangers at Black Moshannon, the Bureau of Forestry in Centre County and the Office of Attorney General Region 2 in Centre County (state agency); the Centre County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Centre 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.
- Patton Township: 272 for 2025 and 274 for 2024.
- Ferguson Township: 181 for 2025, 165 for 2024 and 108 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Spring Township: 60 for 2025, 104 for 2024, 138 for 2023, 93 for 2020 and 140 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Centre County Sheriff's Office: 5 for 2025, 10 for 2024 and 0 for 2023.
- State College: 1,114 for 2024 and 1,214 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 518 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 518 in 2025 against 553 in 2024, down 6.3 percent.
Through June 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 193 arrests, against 269 in the same months of 2025.
State College reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Centre County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Centre 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 190 people, down from about 250 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 397 beds, and it ran at 48 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Centre County Sheriff's Office at centrecountypa.gov/232/Inmate-Listing (page title: Inmate Listing | Centre County, PA), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
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 Centre County
Whether someone was arrested in Centre County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Centre County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Centre County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at civil.centrecountypa.gov/courts.civil.portal/CaseSearch); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at centrecountypa.gov/366/District-Attorney, phone (814) 355-6735).
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 Centre 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 Centre County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in State College or Bellefonte: 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 Pennsylvania State University at University Park, the State Park Rangers at Bald Eagle or the State Park Rangers at Black Moshannon: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (814) 355-6735, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Centre County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at civil.centrecountypa.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at centrecountypa.gov/166/Open-Records-Request (page title: Open Records Request | Centre County, PA).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Centre County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the ten cities in Centre County: State College and Bellefonte. Philipsburg, Centre Hall, Milesburg, Millheim, Howard, Snow Shoe, Port Matilda and Unionville have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries Spring Township Police Department, Centre County, the Ferguson Township Police Department and the Patton Township Police Department as city agencies in Centre County; Spring Township, Ferguson Township and Patton 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 Centre County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Centre County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- State College (41,228)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Centre County each year?
Patton Township reported 272 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 518 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Centre County?
Look on the custody page of the Centre County Sheriff's Office at centrecountypa.gov/232/Inmate-Listing. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Centre County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Centre County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Centre 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 Centre County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Centre 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 centrecountypa.gov/166/Open-Records-Request.
Is this the official Centre 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.