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.
Lauderdale County, Tennessee, has about 25,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office and three 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 Lauderdale 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: Lauderdale County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lauderdale County
The Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lauderdale County. It reported 665 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists three cities in Lauderdale County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Ripley, 7,546 residents: 195 arrests reported for 2025.
- Halls, 2,033 residents: 66 arrests reported for 2025.
- Gates, 654 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2020.
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 Lauderdale 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.
- Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office: 665 for 2025, 798 for 2024, 717 for 2023, 734 for 2022, 667 for 2021 and 597 for 2020.
- Ripley: 195 for 2025, 228 for 2024, 203 for 2023, 197 for 2022, 185 for 2021 and 195 for 2020.
- Halls: 66 for 2025, 75 for 2024, 73 for 2023, 70 for 2022, 110 for 2021 and 64 for 2020.
- Gates: 2 for 2020 and 16 for 2019.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 926 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 926 in 2025 against 1,101 in 2024, down 16 percent.
Through July 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 436 arrests, against 556 in the same months of 2025.
Gates reported only part of 2025 (10 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lauderdale County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lauderdale 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 86 people, down from about 120 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 144 beds, and it ran at 60 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Lauderdale County
An arrest in Lauderdale County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Lauderdale 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/9782360); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-25).
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 Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Ripley, Halls or Gates: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- 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 Lauderdale County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/node/9782360.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Lauderdale County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for three of the four cities in Lauderdale County: Ripley, Halls and Gates. Henning 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 Lauderdale County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Lauderdale County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Ripley (7,546)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lauderdale County each year?
The Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office reported 665 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 926 between them.
Where are people arrested in Lauderdale County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale 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.