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.
Kingsport, Tennessee, in Sullivan County, has about 57,000 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 Sullivan 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: Kingsport public records, Sullivan County arrest records, Tennessee arrest records and Tennessee inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Kingsport
The FBI lists Kingsport with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Kingsport Police Department. It reported 3,752 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 Sullivan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 4,896 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Sullivan County: Drug Task Force's 2nd Judicial District and Tri-Cities Regional Airport (other); Northeast State Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Kingsport 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.
- Kingsport: 3,752 for 2025, 3,163 for 2024, 2,909 for 2023, 2,714 for 2022, 3,246 for 2021 and 3,255 for 2020.
Kingsport's 3,752 arrests in 2025 were up 19 percent from 3,163 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Kingsport reported 2,450 arrests, against 2,711 in the same months of 2025.
Across Sullivan County, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 9,889 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Kingsport Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Kingsport 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 930 people, down from about 980 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 659 beds, and it ran at 141 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office at scsotn.com/inmateRoster (page title: Inmate Roster | Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, TN), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
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 Kingsport
Whether someone was arrested in Kingsport, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Sullivan 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/all/all?tid=136); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at sullivancountytn.gov/district-attorney, phone (423) 279-3278).
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 Kingsport
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 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 Kingsport police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at kingsporttn.gov/city-services/police-department/administrative_bure... (page title: Records Division | Kingsport, TN), Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney General, (423) 279-3278, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Sullivan County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/clerks/all/all?tid=136.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sullivancountytn.gov (page title: Public Records REQUEST | Sullivan County TN).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Sullivan County guide covers every agency in the county: Sullivan County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Kingsport each year?
Kingsport reported 3,752 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Kingsport?
Look on the custody page of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office at scsotn.com/inmateRoster. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Kingsport booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Kingsport?
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 Kingsport?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Kingsport police for its own arrests, the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sullivancountytn.gov.
Is this the official Kingsport 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.