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.
Northampton County, Pennsylvania, has about 323,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Northampton County Sheriff's Office, 26 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 Northampton 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: Northampton County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Northampton County
The Northampton County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Northampton County. It reported 9 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
Arrests inside 16 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:
- Bethlehem (township), 79,453 residents: 502 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bethlehem, 79,453 residents: 2,157 arrests reported for 2025.
- Easton, 30,432 residents: 473 arrests reported for 2025.
- Northampton, 10,587 residents: 193 arrests reported for 2024.
- Wilson, 8,169 residents: 96 arrests reported for 2024.
- Hellertown, 6,145 residents: 109 arrests reported for 2024.
- Nazareth, 6,088 residents: 131 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bangor, 5,171 residents: 71 arrests reported for 2024.
- North Catasauqua, 3,126 residents: 124 arrests reported for 2024.
- Freemansburg, 2,973 residents: 17 arrests reported for 2025.
- Walnutport, 2,100 residents: 34 arrests reported for 2025.
- Roseto, 1,564 residents: 2 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 Northampton County: County Detective in Northampton County (other); Lehigh University, Moravian College and Lafayette College (campus police); the State Park Rangers at Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, the Bureau of Forestry in Northampton County and the Office of Attorney General Region 1 in Northampton County (state agency); the Northampton County State Police (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Northampton 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.
- Bethlehem: 2,157 for 2025, 2,270 for 2024 and 2,274 for 2023.
- Colonial Regional: 672 for 2024, 612 for 2023 and 429 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Easton: 473 for 2025, 485 for 2024, 552 for 2023, 882 for 2020 and 1,095 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Bethlehem (township): 502 for 2025, 483 for 2024 and 423 for 2023.
- Lower Saucon Township: 136 for 2025, 342 for 2024, 106 for 2023 and 278 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Slate Belt Regional: 240 for 2024, 194 for 2023 and 474 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Northampton: 193 for 2024 and 200 for 2023.
- Bushkill Township: 156 for 2024, 172 for 2023 and 90 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- North Catasauqua: 124 for 2024.
- Hellertown: 109 for 2024 and 250 for 2023.
- Wilson: 96 for 2024, 91 for 2023, 79 for 2022, 146 for 2020 and 144 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Lehigh Township: 92 for 2024 and 84 for 2020; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the 25 agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 5,473 arrests that year. The 22 of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 5,233 in 2024 against 5,107 in 2023, up 2.5 percent.
Nazareth and Palmer Township reported only part of 2024 (11 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Northampton County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Northampton 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 570 people, down from about 670 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 838 beds, and it ran at 68 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 Northampton County Sheriff's Office at norcopa.gov/sheriffs-department (page title: Northampton County, PA), phone (610) 829-6501, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 Northampton County
An arrest in Northampton County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: UJS Web Portal, the Pennsylvania courts' free statewide docket search, which shows whether charges were filed; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at norcopa.gov/district-attorney, phone (610) 829-6630).
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 Northampton 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 Northampton County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (610) 829-6501.
- An arrest in Bethlehem (township), Bethlehem, Easton, Northampton, Wilson, Hellertown 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 County Detective in Northampton County, Lehigh University or Moravian College: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (610) 829-6630, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Northampton County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 16 of the 21 cities in Northampton County: the twelve named above and Tatamy, West Easton, East Bangor and Portland. Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, Bath, Stockertown, Glendon and Chapman have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Colonial Regional Police Department, Lehigh Township Police Department, Northampton County, the Palmer Township Police Department and seven more as city agencies in Northampton County; Colonial Regional, Lehigh Township, Palmer Township and seven 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 Northampton County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Northampton 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 Northampton County each year?
Bethlehem reported 2,157 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Northampton County sent in full, the 25 with every month on file reported 5,473 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Northampton County?
Ask the Northampton County Sheriff's Office at (610) 829-6501; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at norcopa.gov/sheriffs-department.
Where are people arrested in Northampton County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Northampton County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Northampton 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 Northampton County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Northampton 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 Northampton 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.