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 30, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
DeKalb County, Tennessee, has about 22,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office and two city agencies. 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 DeKalb 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: DeKalb County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in DeKalb County
The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for DeKalb County. It reported 704 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in DeKalb County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Smithville, 5,546 residents: 160 arrests reported for 2025.
- Alexandria, 944 residents: 44 arrests reported for 2023.
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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in DeKalb 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.
- DeKalb County Sheriff's Office: 704 for 2025, 759 for 2024, 700 for 2023, 778 for 2022 and 929 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Smithville: 160 for 2025, 205 for 2024, 210 for 2023, 237 for 2022, 272 for 2021 and 258 for 2020.
- Alexandria: 44 for 2023, 28 for 2020 and 23 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 864 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 864 in 2025 against 964 in 2024, down 10 percent.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 462 arrests, against 606 in the same months of 2025.
Alexandria reported only part of 2025 (7 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in DeKalb County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in DeKalb County 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 44 people, down from about 85 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 102 beds, and it ran at 44 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 DeKalb County Sheriff's Office at dekalbsheriff.com (page title: DeKalb County Jail, IN Inmate Roster, Booking, Arrests, Warrants), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 DeKalb County
Whether someone was arrested in DeKalb County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the DeKalb County Circuit and Chancery Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at dekalbtennessee.com/courts-and-dockets.html, phone 615-597-5175); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dekalbda.org).
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 DeKalb 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 DeKalb County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Smithville or Alexandria: 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 DeKalb County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at dekalbtennessee.com/courts-and-dockets.html, phone 615-597-5175.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in DeKalb County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the four cities in DeKalb County: Smithville and Alexandria. Dowelltown and Liberty have 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 DeKalb County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in DeKalb County each year?
The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office reported 704 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 864 between them.
Where are people arrested in DeKalb County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in DeKalb 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 DeKalb County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the DeKalb 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 DeKalb 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.