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.
Houston County, Tennessee, has about 8,500 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Houston 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 Houston 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: Houston County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Houston County
The Houston County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Houston County. It reported 119 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Houston County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Erin, 1,220 residents: 41 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Houston County
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.
- Houston County Sheriff's Office: 119 for 2025, 170 for 2024, 163 for 2023, 246 for 2022, 233 for 2021 and 226 for 2020.
- Erin: 41 for 2025, 49 for 2024, 67 for 2023, 50 for 2022, 84 for 2021 and 99 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 160 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 160 in 2025 against 219 in 2024, down 27 percent.
Through September 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 114 arrests, against 131 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Houston County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Houston 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 36 people, up from about 30 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 35 beds, and it ran at 104 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 Houston County Sheriff's Office at hcsotn.org/node/2 (page title: Inmate Booking | Houston County Sheriff's Office), phone 931.289.4614, 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 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 Houston County
Whether someone was arrested in Houston County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Houston County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Houston County Circuit and Chancery Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at tncourts.gov/node/9782351); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-23).
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 Houston 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 Houston County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 931.289.4614.
- An arrest in Erin: 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 Houston County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/node/9782351.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Houston County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the two cities in Houston County: Erin. Tennessee Ridge 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 Houston County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Houston County each year?
The Houston County Sheriff's Office reported 119 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 160 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Houston County?
Look on the custody page of the Houston County Sheriff's Office at hcsotn.org/node/2, or call 931.289.4614. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Houston County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Houston County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Houston 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 Houston County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Houston 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 Houston 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.