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 on September 23, 2026.
Carter County, Tennessee, has about 57,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Carter County Sheriff's Office and one city 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 Carter 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: Carter County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Carter County
The Carter County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Carter County. It reported 1,260 arrests for 2025.
One city in Carter County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Elizabethton, 14,461 residents: 408 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Johnson City Police Department is listed by the FBI across three counties including Carter County, so its arrests are not broken out for Carter County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Carter 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.
- Carter County Sheriff's Office: 1,260 for 2025, 1,023 for 2024, 1,292 for 2023, 946 for 2022, 441 for 2020 and 648 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Elizabethton: 408 for 2024, 501 for 2023, 580 for 2022, 604 for 2021, 741 for 2020 and 830 for 2019.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 1,431 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 1,431 in 2024 against 1,793 in 2023, down 20 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Carter County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Carter 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 250 people, down from about 340 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 296 beds, and it ran at 85 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 Carter County Sheriff's Office at cartertnsheriff.gov/inmateRoster (page title: Inmate Roster | Carter 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 Carter County
Whether someone was arrested in Carter County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Carter County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at cartercountytn.gov/government/elected_officials/circuit_court_clerk..., phone (423) 542-1835); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-1).
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 Carter County
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 Carter County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Elizabethton: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- 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 Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at cartercountytn.gov, phone (423) 542-1835.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Carter County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the two cities in Carter County: Elizabethton. Watauga has no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Carter County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Carter County each year?
The Carter County Sheriff's Office reported 1,260 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Carter County sent in full, the two with every month on file reported 1,431 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Carter County?
Look on the custody page of the Carter County Sheriff's Office at cartertnsheriff.gov/inmateRoster. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Carter County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Carter County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Carter 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 Carter County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Carter 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 Carter 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.