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 October 2, 2026.
Sweetwater, Tennessee, in Monroe County, has about 6,700 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 Monroe 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: Sweetwater public records, Monroe County arrest records, Tennessee arrest records and Tennessee inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Sweetwater
The FBI lists Sweetwater with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Sweetwater Police Department. It reported 228 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 Monroe County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 726 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Sweetwater 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.
- Sweetwater: 228 for 2025, 285 for 2024, 354 for 2023, 447 for 2022, 377 for 2020 and 647 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Sweetwater's 228 arrests in 2025 were down 20 percent from 285 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Sweetwater reported 136 arrests, against 144 in the same months of 2025.
Across Monroe County, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,307 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Sweetwater Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Sweetwater 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 300 people, up from about 280 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 364 beds, and it ran at 83 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Sweetwater
For Sweetwater the place to look is the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-10).
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 Sweetwater
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 Sweetwater police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at sweetwatertn.gov/assets/pdfs/public_records_request.pdf (page title: The City of Sweetwater, Tennessee PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST FORM), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Monroe 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.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at monroetnsheriff.com/public-records-request (page title: Monroe County Tennessee Sheriff's Office is under construction).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Monroe County guide covers every agency in the county: Monroe County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Sweetwater each year?
Sweetwater reported 228 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Sweetwater booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Sweetwater?
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 Sweetwater?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Sweetwater police for its own arrests, the Monroe 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 monroetnsheriff.com/public-records-request.
Is this the official Sweetwater 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.