Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 26, 2026.
Bolivar, Tennessee, in Hardeman County, has about 5,100 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city 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 General files charges, a case in the Hardeman County Circuit and Chancery Courts. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Bolivar public records, Hardeman County arrest records, Tennessee arrest records and Tennessee inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Bolivar
The FBI lists Bolivar with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Bolivar Police Department. It reported 417 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Hardeman County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 578 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Bolivar Reports
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.
- Bolivar: 417 for 2025, 352 for 2024, 346 for 2023, 395 for 2022, 345 for 2021 and 372 for 2020.
Bolivar's 417 arrests in 2025 were up 18 percent from 352 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Bolivar reported 204 arrests, against 320 in the same months of 2025.
Across Hardeman County, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 2,197 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bolivar Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Bolivar 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 2024 the jail held about 110 people, up from about 110 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 179 beds, and it ran at 59 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 Hardeman County Sheriff's Office at hardemancountysheriff.org/corrections (page title: Corrections | Hardeman County Sheriff's Office), phone (731) 658-3971, 505 South Main Street, Bolivar, TN 38008, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Tennessee Department of Correction, whose inmate locator is at foil.app.tn.gov/foil/search.jsp.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Bolivar
An arrest in Bolivar can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Hardeman County Circuit and Chancery Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at tncourts.gov/node/9782343); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-25).
Tennessee is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: TORIS lets anyone run a name-based criminal history search online, for $29 a search, through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. 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 Bolivar
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act the agency must answer within 7 business days, and it may charge copying, and labor after the first hour.
- An arrest by the Bolivar police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at cityofbolivar.com/police (page title: Police | City of Bolivar | Tennessee), phone (731) 658-4284, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Hardeman County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (731) 658-3971.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney General handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Hardeman County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/node/9782343.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Hardeman County guide covers every agency in the county: Hardeman County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bolivar each year?
Bolivar reported 417 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bolivar?
Ask the Hardeman County Sheriff's Office at (731) 658-3971; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at hardemancountysheriff.org/corrections.
Where are people arrested in Bolivar booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Hardeman County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bolivar?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation: TORIS lets anyone run a name-based criminal history search online, for $29. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Tennessee Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Bolivar?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bolivar police for its own arrests, the Hardeman County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 business days.
Is this the official Bolivar website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.