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 1, 2026.
Columbia County, Pennsylvania, has about 66,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by 12 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 Columbia 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: Columbia County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Columbia County
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office | Police to Citizen - Inmates Search is the county law enforcement agency of Columbia County.
The FBI lists five cities in Columbia County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Bloomsburg, 13,286 residents: 335 arrests reported for 2025.
- Berwick, 10,332 residents: 397 arrests reported for 2023.
- Catawissa, 1,537 residents: 183 arrests reported for 2020.
- Benton, 824 residents: 11 arrests reported for 2025.
- Briar Creek, 601 residents: 71 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 Columbia County: the Bureau of Forestry in Columbia County, the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Columbia County and Forest Rangers's Weiser State Forest District 18 (state agency); the Columbia County State Police (state police); Bloomsburg University (campus police); the Central Columbia School District, the Benton Area School District, the Bloomsburg Area School District and Reading Northern Railroad in Columbia County (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Columbia 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.
- Bloomsburg: 335 for 2025, 374 for 2024 and 546 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Hemlock Township: 77 for 2025 and 121 for 2024.
- Briar Creek: 71 for 2025, 42 for 2024 and 120 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Main Township: 6 for 2025 and 37 for 2024.
- Montour Township: 37 for 2025, 29 for 2024, 18 for 2023, 40 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Locust Township: 18 for 2025, 9 for 2024 and 132 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Benton: 11 for 2025, 0 for 2024 and 11 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Berwick: 397 for 2023, 533 for 2022 and 559 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
- Catawissa: 183 for 2020.
- Mifflin Township: 175 for 2019.
Together, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 612 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 29 in 2024 against 18 in 2023.
Scott Township, Mifflin Township, Catawissa and Berwick reported only part of 2024 (11 months, 9 months, 11 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Columbia County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Columbia 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 150 people, down from about 200 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 207 beds, and it ran at 71 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 Columbia County Sheriff's Office | Police to Citizen - Inmates Search at columbiacountyso.policetocitizen.com/Inmates/Catalog (page title: Police To Citizen), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 1, 2026.
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 Columbia County
Whether someone was arrested in Columbia County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Columbia County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at clerkofcourtcolumbia.com/court-case-info); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at columbiapa.org/districtattorney/index.php, phone 570-389-5656).
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 Columbia 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 Columbia County Sheriff's Office | Police to Citizen - Inmates Search: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Bloomsburg, Berwick, Catawissa, Benton or Briar Creek: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Bureau of Forestry in Columbia County, the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Columbia County or the Columbia 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, 570-389-5656, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Columbia County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at clerkofcourtcolumbia.com/court-case-info.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Columbia County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the nine cities in Columbia County: Bloomsburg, Berwick, Catawissa, Benton and Briar Creek. Millville, Orangeville, Stillwater and Centralia have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries Scott Township Police Department, Columbia County, the Mifflin Township Police Department, the Montour Township Police Department and four more as city agencies in Columbia County; Scott Township, Mifflin Township, Montour 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 Columbia County Court of Common Pleas.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Columbia County each year?
Bloomsburg reported 335 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Columbia County sent in full, the seven with every month on file reported 612 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Columbia County?
Ask the Columbia County Sheriff's Office | Police to Citizen - Inmates Search; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at columbiacountyso.policetocitizen.com.
Where are people arrested in Columbia County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office | Police to Citizen - Inmates Search; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Columbia 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 Columbia County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Columbia County Sheriff's Office | Police to Citizen - Inmates Search 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 Columbia 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.