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.
Venango County, Pennsylvania, has about 49,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by five city agencies and five 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 Venango 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: Venango County public records, Pennsylvania arrest records, Pennsylvania inmate search and Pennsylvania criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Venango County
The County Sheriff | Venango County, PA is the county law enforcement agency of Venango County.
The FBI lists five cities in Venango County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Oil City, 9,368 residents: 387 arrests reported for 2025.
- Franklin, 5,933 residents: 319 arrests reported for 2025.
- Sugarcreek, 4,712 residents: 195 arrests reported for 2025.
- Polk, 625 residents: 8 arrests reported for 2025.
- Emlenton, 600 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Venango County: the Venango County State Police (state police); the State Park Rangers at Oil Creek, the Office of Attorney General Region 3 in Venango County and the Bureau of Forestry in Venango County (state agency); the Oil City Area School District (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Venango 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.
- Oil City: 387 for 2025, 325 for 2022 and 338 for 2020; 2021, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Franklin: 319 for 2025 and 227 for 2024.
- Sugarcreek: 195 for 2025, 169 for 2024, 141 for 2023 and 304 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Polk: 8 for 2025, 5 for 2024, 13 for 2023, 4 for 2022, 14 for 2020 and 11 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Emlenton: 2 for 2024, 10 for 2023 and 5 for 2020; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 909 arrests that year. The three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 522 in 2025 against 401 in 2024, up 30 percent.
Emlenton reported only part of 2025 (6 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Venango County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Venango 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 130 people, down from about 160 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 174 beds, and it ran at 73 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 County Sheriff | Venango County, PA at venangocountypa.gov/268/County-Sheriff (page title: County Sheriff | Venango County, PA), phone 814-432-9565, 1168 Liberty Street Courthouse, 1st Floor Franklin, PA 16323, 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 Venango County
Whether someone was arrested in Venango County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: 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 venangocountypa.gov/275/District-Attorney, phone 814-432-9598).
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 Venango 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 County Sheriff | Venango County, PA: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 814-432-9565.
- An arrest in Oil City, Franklin, Sugarcreek, Polk or Emlenton: 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 Venango County State Police, the State Park Rangers at Oil Creek or the Oil City Area School District: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 814-432-9598, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at venangocountypa.gov/578/Right-to-Know (page title: Right to Know | Venango County, PA).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Venango County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the 11 cities in Venango County: Oil City, Franklin, Sugarcreek, Polk and Emlenton. Pleasantville, Rouseville, Clintonville, Cooperstown, Barkeyville and Utica have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Venango County Court of Common Pleas.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Venango 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 Venango County each year?
Oil City reported 387 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 909 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Venango County?
Ask the County Sheriff | Venango County, PA at 814-432-9565; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at venangocountypa.gov/268/County-Sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Venango County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the County Sheriff | Venango County, PA; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Venango 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 Venango County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the County Sheriff | Venango County, PA 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 venangocountypa.gov/578/Right-to-Know.
Is this the official Venango 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.