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.
Knox County, Tennessee, has about 507,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Knox County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and two campus 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 Knox 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: Knox County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Knox County
The Knox County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Knox County. It reported 6,821 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Knox County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Knoxville, 198,722 residents: 8,484 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 Knox County: the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Pellissippi State Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Knox 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.
- Knoxville: 8,484 for 2025, 7,590 for 2024, 6,882 for 2023, 7,544 for 2022, 8,217 for 2021 and 7,337 for 2020.
- Knox County Sheriff's Office: 6,821 for 2025, 5,316 for 2024, 5,667 for 2023, 6,719 for 2022, 7,214 for 2021 and 6,268 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 15,305 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 15,305 in 2025 against 12,906 in 2024, up 19 percent.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 10,664 arrests, against 10,222 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Knox County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Knox 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 1,310 people, down from about 1,460 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 1,371 beds, and it ran at 96 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 Knox County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.knoxcountytn.gov (page title: Knox County Tennessee | Sheriff | 24 Hour Arrests), phone 865-281-6700, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Knox County
Whether someone was arrested in Knox County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Knox County Circuit and Chancery Courts, kept by the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk and Master, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dag.knoxcountytn.gov/about/meet-da-charme-allen).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at criminalcourt.knoxcounty.org/docket-search (page title: Criminal, Traffic and County Ordinance Find my Court Date<!-- --> | <!-- -->Knox County Criminal Court), phone (865) 215-2375, belongs to a lower court, not to the Knox County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
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 Knox 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 Knox County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 865-281-6700.
- An arrest in Knoxville: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville or Pellissippi 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.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Knox County Circuit and Chancery Courts it is kept by the Circuit Court Clerk and the Clerk and Master. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at criminalcourt.knoxcounty.org/docket-search, phone (865) 215-2375, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Knox County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the two cities in Knox County: Knoxville. Farragut 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 Knox County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Knox County each year?
Knoxville reported 8,484 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 15,305 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Knox County?
Ask the Knox County Sheriff's Office at 865-281-6700; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at sheriff.knoxcountytn.gov.
Where are people arrested in Knox County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Knox County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Knox 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 Knox County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Knox 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 Knox 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.