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 between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Anderson County, Tennessee, has about 81,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and one other agency. 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 General files charges, a case in the Anderson County Circuit and Chancery Courts. 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: Anderson County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Anderson County
The Anderson County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Anderson County. It reported 1,301 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside five of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Oak Ridge, 34,039 residents: 1,041 arrests reported for 2025.
- Clinton, 10,458 residents: 474 arrests reported for 2025.
- Oliver Springs, 3,433 residents: 179 arrests reported for 2025.
- Rocky Top, 1,664 residents: 246 arrests reported for 2025.
- Norris, 1,623 residents: 16 arrests reported for 2020.
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 one more agency in Anderson County: 7th Judicial District Crime Task Force (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Anderson County
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.
- Anderson County Sheriff's Office: 1,301 for 2025, 1,320 for 2024, 1,657 for 2023, 1,703 for 2022, 2,118 for 2021 and 1,690 for 2020.
- Oak Ridge: 1,041 for 2025, 1,290 for 2024, 1,290 for 2023, 1,200 for 2022, 1,632 for 2021 and 1,603 for 2020.
- Clinton: 474 for 2025, 473 for 2024, 486 for 2023, 467 for 2022, 462 for 2021 and 553 for 2020.
- Rocky Top: 246 for 2025, 181 for 2024, 264 for 2023, 229 for 2022, 187 for 2021 and 215 for 2020.
- Oliver Springs: 179 for 2025, 157 for 2024, 240 for 2023, 243 for 2022, 304 for 2021 and 537 for 2020.
- Norris: 16 for 2020 and 11 for 2019.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,241 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3,241 in 2025 against 3,421 in 2024, down 5.3 percent.
Through August 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,747 arrests, against 2,320 in the same months of 2025.
Norris reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Anderson County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Anderson County 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 81 people, down from about 410 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 266 beds, and it ran at 30 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 Anderson County Sheriff's Office at tnacso.net (page title: Anderson County Sheriff Department | Integrity. Service. Community.), phone 865-457-6255, 101 South Main Street, Clinton, TN 37716, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Anderson County
For Anderson County the place to look is the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-7).
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 Anderson County
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 Anderson County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 865-457-6255.
- An arrest in Oak Ridge, Clinton, Oliver Springs, Rocky Top or Norris: 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 7th Judicial District Crime Task Force: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney General handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Anderson County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the five cities in Anderson County: Oak Ridge, Clinton, Oliver Springs, Rocky Top and Norris.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Anderson County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Anderson County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Oak Ridge (34,039)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Anderson County each year?
The Anderson County Sheriff's Office reported 1,301 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,241 between them.
Where are people arrested in Anderson County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Anderson County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Anderson County?
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 Anderson County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Anderson County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 business days.
Is this the official Anderson 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.