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.
Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, has about 386,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lehigh County Sheriff's Office, 14 city agencies and eight 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 Lehigh 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: Lehigh County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lehigh County
The Lehigh County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lehigh County. It reported 0 arrests for 2025.
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:
- Allentown, 127,138 residents: 3,122 arrests reported for 2025.
- Emmaus, 12,314 residents: 194 arrests reported for 2025.
- Catasauqua, 6,625 residents: 108 arrests reported for 2024.
- Fountain Hill, 4,880 residents: 95 arrests reported for 2025.
- Slatington, 4,331 residents: 112 arrests reported for 2025.
- Coplay, 3,555 residents: 29 arrests reported for 2025.
- Macungie, 3,335 residents: 52 arrests reported for 2024.
- Alburtis, 2,625 residents: 5 arrests reported for 2025.
- Coopersburg, 2,534 residents: 10 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 Bethlehem Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Lehigh County, so its arrests are not broken out for Lehigh County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Lehigh County: Lehigh County District Attorney and Lehigh Valley International Airport (other); DeSales University, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute and Pennsylvania State University at Lehigh Valley (campus police); the Bureau of Forestry in Lehigh County and the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Lehigh County (state agency); the Lehigh County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lehigh 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.
- Allentown: 3,122 for 2025, 4,009 for 2024, 5,400 for 2023, 3,645 for 2020 and 4,823 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Whitehall Township: 729 for 2025, 725 for 2024, 699 for 2023 and 689 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Upper Macungie Township: 456 for 2025, 603 for 2024, 440 for 2020 and 528 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- South Whitehall Township: 388 for 2025 and 617 for 2020; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Emmaus: 194 for 2025, 241 for 2024 and 268 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Slatington: 112 for 2025, 90 for 2024 and 105 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Upper Saucon Township: 99 for 2025 and 226 for 2020; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Fountain Hill: 95 for 2025, 138 for 2024 and 206 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Coplay: 29 for 2025, 46 for 2024 and 76 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Coopersburg: 10 for 2025, 24 for 2024 and 16 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Alburtis: 5 for 2025 and 4 for 2024.
- Lehigh County Sheriff's Office: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024 and 0 for 2023.
Together, the 12 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,239 arrests that year. The ten of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 4,752 in 2025 against 5,880 in 2024, down 19 percent.
Through July 2026, the nine agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,992 arrests, against 3,193 in the same months of 2025.
Catasauqua, Salisbury Township and Macungie reported only part of 2025 (11 months, 10 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lehigh County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lehigh 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 780 people, up from about 760 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 1,363 beds, and it ran at 57 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Lehigh County
For Lehigh County the place to look is UJS Web Portal, the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search, which shows whether charges were filed.
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 Lehigh 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 Lehigh County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Allentown, Emmaus, Catasauqua, Fountain Hill, Slatington, Coplay 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 Lehigh County District Attorney, Lehigh Valley International Airport or DeSales University: the records office of the agency involved.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Lehigh County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the nine cities in Lehigh County: Allentown, Emmaus, Catasauqua, Fountain Hill, Slatington, Coplay, Macungie, Alburtis and Coopersburg. The FBI's list also carries the Salisbury Township Police Department, the Whitehall Township Police Department, the Upper Saucon Township Police Department and two more as city agencies in Lehigh County; Salisbury Township, Whitehall Township, Upper Saucon Township and two 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 Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Lehigh County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lehigh County each year?
Allentown reported 3,122 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 12 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,239 between them.
Where are people arrested in Lehigh County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lehigh County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lehigh 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 Lehigh County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lehigh 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 Lehigh 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.