SearchSystems Editorial

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 September 28, 2026.

About this guide

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, has about 879,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, 50 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 Montgomery 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: Montgomery County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Montgomery County

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Montgomery County. It reported 0 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside 19 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, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:

  • Norristown, 36,075 residents: 911 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Pottstown, 23,553 residents: 1,837 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Lansdale, 19,154 residents: 286 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Conshohocken, 9,342 residents: 5 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Hatboro, 8,341 residents: 66 arrests reported for 2024.
  • Souderton, 7,274 residents: 58 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Ambler, 6,900 residents: 42 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Bridgeport, 5,401 residents: 294 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Collegeville, 5,308 residents: 16 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Telford, 4,977 residents: 16 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Royersford, 4,958 residents: 53 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Jenkintown, 4,740 residents: 65 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 Montgomery County: the State Park Rangers at Evansburg, the State Park Rangers at Fort Washington, the Bureau of Forestry at Montgomery and the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Montgomery County (state agency); Pennsylvania State University at Abington (campus police); the Methacton School District and County Detective in Montgomery County (other); the Skippack State Police (state police).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Montgomery County

The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts 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.

  • Pottstown: 1,837 for 2025, 1,877 for 2024, 1,694 for 2023, 2,251 for 2020 and 2,438 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Plymouth Township: 1,371 for 2025, 1,391 for 2024, 1,197 for 2023, 1,082 for 2022 and 706 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
  • Abington Township: 1,171 for 2025, 1,290 for 2024, 1,192 for 2023, 1,249 for 2020 and 2,409 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Montgomery Township: 1,128 for 2025, 1,127 for 2024, 1,122 for 2023, 1,397 for 2020 and 1,597 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Norristown: 911 for 2025, 1,066 for 2024, 1,340 for 2023, 1,119 for 2022, 1,477 for 2020 and 1,800 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
  • Cheltenham Township: 731 for 2025, 544 for 2023 and 472 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
  • Lower Merion Township: 662 for 2025, 785 for 2024, 506 for 2023, 467 for 2020 and 816 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Upper Moreland Township: 638 for 2025, 729 for 2024, 795 for 2023 and 521 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Lower Pottsgrove Township: 330 for 2025, 172 for 2024, 151 for 2023 and 148 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
  • Bridgeport: 294 for 2025, 197 for 2023 and 236 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
  • Upper Providence Township: 293 for 2025, 363 for 2024, 371 for 2023 and 288 for 2022.
  • Lansdale: 286 for 2025, 328 for 2024, 368 for 2023, 401 for 2020 and 440 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.

Together, the 39 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 11,275 arrests that year. The 35 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 10,061 in 2025 against 10,992 in 2024, down 8.5 percent.

Upper Merion Township, West Norriton Township, Whitpain Township, Lower Salford Township and seven more reported only part of 2025 (11 months, 11 months, 11 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Montgomery County Are Held

A person kept in custody after an arrest in Montgomery 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 940 people, down from about 1,580 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 2,080 beds, and it ran at 43 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 Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at mcsojail.countygovservices.com/Home/CurrentInmates (page title: Current Inmates | Montgomery County Sheriff's Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 28, 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 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 Montgomery County

An arrest in Montgomery County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at montgomerycountypa.gov/departments/clerk-courts/clerk-courts-court-...); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at montgomerycountypa.gov/departments/district-attorney, phone 610-278-3090).

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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
  • An arrest in Norristown, Pottstown, Lansdale, Conshohocken, Hatboro, Souderton 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 Evansburg, the State Park Rangers at Fort Washington or Pennsylvania State University at Abington: the records office of the agency involved.
  • A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 610-278-3090, handles discovery for pending cases.
  • The court file of a case that was filed: the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at montgomerycountypa.gov.
  • Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at montgomerycountypa.gov (page title: Records Requests | Montgomery County, PA).
  • Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.

Cities in Montgomery County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 19 of the 24 cities in Montgomery County: the twelve named above and Narberth, Hatfield, North Wales, East Greenville, Rockledge, West Conshohocken and Bryn Athyn. Pennsburg, Trappe, Red Hill, Schwenksville and Green Lane have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Upper Merion Township Police Department, the Upper Moreland Township Police Department, the West Norriton Township Police Department and 28 more as city agencies in Montgomery County; Upper Merion Township, Upper Moreland Township, West Norriton Township and 28 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 Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Montgomery 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 Montgomery County each year?

Pottstown reported 1,837 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 39 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 11,275 between them.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Montgomery County?

Look on the custody page of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at mcsojail.countygovservices.com. It covers people booked into the county jail.

Where are people arrested in Montgomery County booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Montgomery 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 Montgomery County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Montgomery 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 montgomerycountypa.gov.

Is this the official Montgomery 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.