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.
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, has about 293,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by 15 city agencies and ten 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 Dauphin 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: Dauphin County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Dauphin 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:
- Harrisburg, 50,649 residents: 1,948 arrests reported for 2025.
- Middletown, 9,748 residents: 288 arrests reported for 2025.
- Steelton, 6,358 residents: 249 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hummelstown, 4,542 residents: 67 arrests reported for 2025.
- Penbrook, 3,263 residents: 121 arrests reported for 2025.
- Highspire, 2,734 residents: 95 arrests reported for 2025.
- Millersburg, 2,546 residents: 18 arrests reported for 2025.
- Royalton, 1,134 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2025.
- Halifax, 813 residents: 3 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 Dauphin County: the State Capitol Police, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the Bureau of Forestry at Fire Protection Division, Harrisburg, the Bureau of Forestry in Dauphin County and one more (state agency); County Detective in Dauphin County, Harrisburg International Airport and the Central Dauphin School District (other); Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg (campus police); the Elizabethville State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Dauphin 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.
- Harrisburg: 1,948 for 2025, 1,520 for 2024, 1,588 for 2023 and 4,937 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Susquehanna Township: 1,268 for 2025, 1,171 for 2024, 926 for 2023, 1,143 for 2020 and 1,505 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Lower Paxton Township: 1,125 for 2025 and 1,498 for 2020; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Swatara Township: 905 for 2025, 1,053 for 2024, 978 for 2023, 1,737 for 2020 and 1,792 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Derry Township: 756 for 2025, 603 for 2024, 776 for 2023, 571 for 2022 and 621 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Middletown: 288 for 2025, 287 for 2024, 341 for 2023, 428 for 2020 and 676 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Steelton: 249 for 2025, 176 for 2024 and 442 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Penbrook: 121 for 2025, 139 for 2024, 143 for 2023, 137 for 2022, 137 for 2021 and 127 for 2020.
- Lower Swatara Township: 118 for 2025 and 179 for 2020; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Highspire: 95 for 2025, 104 for 2024, 106 for 2020 and 123 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Hummelstown: 67 for 2025, 121 for 2024, 157 for 2023 and 88 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Millersburg: 18 for 2025, 8 for 2024, 15 for 2020 and 41 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the 15 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,965 arrests that year. The 13 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,722 in 2025 against 5,183 in 2024, up 10 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Dauphin County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Dauphin County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2024 the jail held about 1,010 people, up from about 1,000 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,329 beds, and it ran at 78 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 sheriff's office at dauphincounty.gov/government/support-services/prison/inmate-lookup (page title: Proceed with caution!), 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 Dauphin County
Whether someone was arrested in Dauphin County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the sheriff's office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at dauphincounty.gov/government/court-departments/adult-division/acces...); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dauphincounty.gov/government/publicly-elected-officials/district-at..., phone (717) 780-6767).
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 Dauphin 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 in Harrisburg, Middletown, Steelton, Hummelstown, Penbrook, Highspire or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the State Capitol Police, County Detective in Dauphin County or Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (717) 780-6767, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at dauphincounty.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dauphincounty.gov (page title: Open Records).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Dauphin County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for nine of the 17 cities in Dauphin County: Harrisburg, Middletown, Steelton, Hummelstown, Penbrook, Highspire, Millersburg, Royalton and Halifax. Lykens, Paxtang, Elizabethville, Williamstown, Dauphin, Gratz, Berrysburg and Pillow have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Lower Paxton Township Police Department, Susquehanna Township Police Department, Dauphin County, the Swatara Township Police Department and three more as city agencies in Dauphin County; Lower Paxton Township, Susquehanna Township, Swatara Township and three 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 Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Dauphin County each year?
Harrisburg reported 1,948 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 15 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 6,965 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Dauphin County?
Look on the custody page of the sheriff's office at dauphincounty.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Dauphin County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Dauphin 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 Dauphin County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the sheriff's office or the city's police. 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 dauphincounty.gov.
Is this the official Dauphin 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.