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 30, 2026.
Fayetteville, Tennessee, in Lincoln County, has about 7,100 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 Lincoln 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: Fayetteville public records, Lincoln County arrest records, Tennessee arrest records and Tennessee inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Fayetteville
The FBI lists Fayetteville with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Fayetteville Police Department. It reported 387 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 1,014 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Fayetteville Reports
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.
- Fayetteville: 387 for 2025, 428 for 2024, 415 for 2023, 504 for 2022, 534 for 2021 and 390 for 2020.
Fayetteville's 387 arrests in 2025 were down 9.6 percent from 428 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Fayetteville reported 244 arrests, against 246 in the same months of 2025.
Across Lincoln County, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,401 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Fayetteville Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Fayetteville 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 170 people, up from about 160 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 276 beds, and it ran at 63 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at p2c.lincolnsheriff.org/jailinmates.aspx (page title: Lincoln County Sheriffs Office P2C), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 27, 2026.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Tennessee Department of Correction lists its inmates at foil.app.tn.gov/foil/search.jsp.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Fayetteville
Whether someone was arrested in Fayetteville, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Lincoln 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/clerks/lincoln-county?page=1); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-17).
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 Fayetteville
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 Fayetteville police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at fayettevillenc.nextrequest.com/requests/new (page title: NextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- 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 Lincoln County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/clerks/lincoln-county?page=1.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Lincoln County guide covers every agency in the county: Lincoln County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Fayetteville each year?
Fayetteville reported 387 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Fayetteville?
Ask the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at p2c.lincolnsheriff.org/jailinmates.aspx.
Where are people arrested in Fayetteville booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Fayetteville?
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 Fayetteville?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Fayetteville police for its own arrests, the Lincoln 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 Fayetteville 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.