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 9, 2026.
Polk County, Tennessee, has about 18,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Polk 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 Polk 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: Polk County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Polk County
The Polk County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Polk County. It reported 624 arrests for 2025.
One city in Polk County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Benton, 1,458 residents: 54 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Polk 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.
- Polk County Sheriff's Office: 624 for 2025, 592 for 2024, 708 for 2023, 705 for 2022, 635 for 2021 and 655 for 2020.
- Benton: 54 for 2024, 98 for 2023, 117 for 2022, 114 for 2021, 136 for 2020 and 192 for 2019.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 646 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 646 in 2024 against 806 in 2023, down 20 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Polk County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Polk 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 140 people, down from about 180 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 174 beds, and it ran at 81 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 Polk County Sheriff's Office at polkcountytn.gov (page title: Sheriff's Office | Polk County Government), phone 423-338-4527, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 9, 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 Polk County
Whether someone was arrested in Polk County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Polk 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/9782382); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-11/about, phone (931)962-1144).
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 Polk County
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. 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 Polk County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 423-338-4527.
- An arrest in Benton: 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, (931)962-1144, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Polk County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/node/9782382.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The other Polk County guides go further: warrants, criminal records, court records, police reports, traffic tickets, DUI, divorce records and property records.
Cities in Polk County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the three cities in Polk County: Benton. Copperhill and Ducktown have 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 Polk County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Polk County each year?
The Polk County Sheriff's Office reported 624 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Polk County sent in full, the two with every month on file reported 646 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Polk County?
Ask the Polk County Sheriff's Office at 423-338-4527; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at polkcountytn.gov.
Where are people arrested in Polk County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Polk County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Polk 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 Polk County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Polk 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 Polk 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.