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.
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, has about 90,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Northumberland County Sheriff's Office, 12 city agencies and six 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 Northumberland 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: Northumberland County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Northumberland County
The Northumberland County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Northumberland County. It reported 0 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
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:
- Sunbury, 9,549 residents: 336 arrests reported for 2023.
- Shamokin, 6,787 residents: 604 arrests reported for 2025.
- Milton, 6,483 residents: 204 arrests reported for 2022.
- Mount Carmel (township), 5,626 residents: 154 arrests reported for 2023.
- Mount Carmel, 5,626 residents: 276 arrests reported for 2025.
- Northumberland, 3,835 residents: 99 arrests reported for 2025.
- Kulpmont, 2,698 residents: 19 arrests reported for 2025.
- Watsontown, 2,206 residents: 33 arrests reported for 2025.
- Riverside, 2,004 residents: 31 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 Northumberland County: the Northumberland County State Police (state police); the Office of Attorney General Region 2 in Northumberland County, the Bureau of Forestry in Northumberland County and the State Park Rangers at Shikellamy (state agency); the Shamokin Area School District and Reading Northern Railroad in Northumberland County (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Northumberland 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.
- Shamokin: 604 for 2025, 617 for 2024, 582 for 2023, 395 for 2022 and 750 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
- Mount Carmel: 276 for 2025, 407 for 2024 and 569 for 2023.
- Coal Township: 247 for 2025, 295 for 2024 and 247 for 2023.
- Northumberland: 99 for 2025, 81 for 2024, 82 for 2023, 127 for 2020 and 110 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Ralpho Township: 69 for 2025, 71 for 2022 and 151 for 2019; 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Watsontown: 33 for 2025, 43 for 2024, 73 for 2023 and 84 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Riverside: 31 for 2025, 13 for 2024, 32 for 2023 and 40 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Kulpmont: 19 for 2025, 17 for 2024, 9 for 2023 and 34 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Sunbury: 336 for 2023, 481 for 2022, 373 for 2020 and 417 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Milton: 204 for 2022 and 123 for 2020; 2021 is missing months.
- Mount Carmel (township): 154 for 2023 and 252 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Point Township: 55 for 2024, 52 for 2023, 70 for 2020 and 102 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the eight agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,378 arrests that year. The seven of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,309 in 2025 against 1,473 in 2024, down 11 percent.
Sunbury, Mount Carmel (township), Northumberland County Sheriff's Office, Milton and one 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 Northumberland County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Northumberland 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 2023 the jail held about 150 people, down from about 260 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 284 beds, and it ran at 53 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 Northumberland County Sheriff's Office at northumberlandcountypa.gov/sheriff (page title: Sheriff | County of Northumberland), phone 570.988.4155, Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Northumberland County
Whether someone was arrested in Northumberland County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at northumberlandcountypa.gov/court-locations, phone 570.988.4134); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at northumberlandcountypa.gov/district-attorney, phone 570.988.4134).
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 Northumberland 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 Northumberland County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 570.988.4155.
- An arrest in Sunbury, Shamokin, Milton, Mount Carmel (township), Mount Carmel, Northumberland 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 Northumberland County State Police, the Office of Attorney General Region 2 in Northumberland County or the Bureau of Forestry in Northumberland County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 570.988.4134, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas, through the court records page at northumberlandcountypa.gov/court-locations, phone 570.988.4134.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Northumberland County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for nine of the 13 cities in Northumberland County: Sunbury, Shamokin, Milton, Mount Carmel (township), Mount Carmel, Northumberland, Kulpmont, Watsontown and Riverside. Turbotville, Marion Heights, Herndon, Snydertown and McEwensville have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Point Township Police Department, the Ralpho Township Police Department and the Coal Township Police Department as city agencies in Northumberland County; Point Township, Ralpho Township and Coal Township 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 Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Northumberland County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Shamokin (6,787)
- Mount Carmel (5,626)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Northumberland County each year?
Shamokin reported 604 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the eight agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,378 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Northumberland County?
Ask the Northumberland County Sheriff's Office at 570.988.4155; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at northumberlandcountypa.gov/sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Northumberland County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Northumberland County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Northumberland 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 Northumberland County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Northumberland 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 Northumberland 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.