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 September 30, 2026.
Lincoln County, Tennessee, has about 37,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lincoln 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 Lincoln 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: Lincoln County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lincoln County
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lincoln County. It reported 1,014 arrests for 2025.
One city in Lincoln County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Fayetteville, 7,142 residents: 387 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 Ardmore Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Lincoln County, so its arrests are not broken out for Lincoln County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lincoln 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.
- Lincoln County Sheriff's Office: 1,014 for 2025, 1,230 for 2024, 1,234 for 2023, 1,077 for 2022, 897 for 2021 and 704 for 2020.
- Fayetteville: 387 for 2025, 428 for 2024, 415 for 2023, 504 for 2022, 534 for 2021 and 390 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,401 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,401 in 2025 against 1,658 in 2024, down 16 percent.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 943 arrests, against 961 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lincoln County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lincoln 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 170 people, up from about 160 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 276 beds, and it ran at 63 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at p2c.lincolnsheriff.org/jailinmates.aspx (page title: Lincoln County Sheriffs Office P2C), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 27, 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 Lincoln County
An arrest in Lincoln County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Lincoln 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/clerks/lincoln-county?page=1); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-17).
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 Lincoln 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Fayetteville: 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 Lincoln County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/clerks/lincoln-county?page=1.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Lincoln County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the two cities in Lincoln County: Fayetteville. Petersburg 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 Lincoln County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Lincoln County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Fayetteville (7,142)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lincoln County each year?
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office reported 1,014 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,401 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Lincoln County?
Ask the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at p2c.lincolnsheriff.org/jailinmates.aspx.
Where are people arrested in Lincoln County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lincoln 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 Lincoln County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lincoln 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 Lincoln 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.