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.
Hamblen County, Tennessee, has about 68,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Hamblen County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and two campus, state or other 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 Hamblen 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: Hamblen County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Hamblen County
The Hamblen County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Hamblen County. It reported 1,787 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Hamblen County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Morristown, 32,994 residents: 1,180 arrests reported for 2025.
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 these agencies in Hamblen County: the Wildlife Resources Agency's Region 4 (state agency); Walters State Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Hamblen 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.
- Hamblen County Sheriff's Office: 1,787 for 2025, 1,789 for 2024, 1,846 for 2023, 1,674 for 2022, 2,001 for 2021 and 1,859 for 2020.
- Morristown: 1,180 for 2025, 1,243 for 2024, 1,557 for 2023, 1,642 for 2022, 1,751 for 2021 and 1,527 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,967 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,967 in 2025 against 3,032 in 2024, down 2.1 percent.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,658 arrests, against 2,122 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Hamblen County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Hamblen 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 340 people, down from about 430 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 255 beds, and it ran at 135 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 Hamblen County Sheriff's Office at hamblencountytn.gov/sheriff (page title: Sheriff’s Office And Detention Center | Hamblen County Government), phone (423) 586-3781, 460 N Jackson Street Morristown, TN 37814, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Hamblen County
For Hamblen 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-3).
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 Hamblen 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 Hamblen County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (423) 586-3781.
- An arrest in Morristown: 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 the Wildlife Resources Agency's Region 4 or Walters State Community College: 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 Hamblen County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for Morristown, the one city in Hamblen County.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Hamblen County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Hamblen County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Morristown (32,994)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Hamblen County each year?
The Hamblen County Sheriff's Office reported 1,787 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,967 between them.
Where are people arrested in Hamblen County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Hamblen County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Hamblen 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 Hamblen County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Hamblen 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 Hamblen 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.