SearchSystems Editorial

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 2, 2026.

About this guide

Shelby County, Tennessee, has about 911,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and six campus, state or other 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 Shelby 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: Shelby County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Shelby County

The Shelby County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Shelby County. It reported 1,603 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside five of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:

  • Memphis, 610,919 residents: 16,348 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Bartlett, 56,708 residents: 4,793 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Collierville, 51,951 residents: 2,280 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Germantown, 40,128 residents: 1,389 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Millington, 11,486 residents: 389 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 Shelby County: the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and West Tennessee Violent Crime Task Force (other); Southwest Tennessee Community College, Christian Brothers University, the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee at Health Science Center (campus police).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Shelby 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.

  • Memphis: 16,348 for 2025, 16,408 for 2024, 14,819 for 2023, 22,562 for 2022, 19,949 for 2021 and 23,094 for 2020.
  • Bartlett: 4,793 for 2025, 3,373 for 2024, 3,172 for 2023, 3,562 for 2022, 3,283 for 2020 and 4,159 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
  • Collierville: 2,280 for 2025, 1,993 for 2024, 2,138 for 2023, 1,918 for 2022, 1,477 for 2021 and 1,527 for 2020.
  • Shelby County Sheriff's Office: 1,603 for 2025, 1,479 for 2024, 1,261 for 2023, 1,412 for 2022, 1,597 for 2021 and 1,549 for 2020.
  • Germantown: 1,389 for 2025, 1,140 for 2024, 1,011 for 2023, 1,065 for 2022, 664 for 2021 and 1,181 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
  • Millington: 389 for 2025, 362 for 2024, 431 for 2023, 290 for 2022, 818 for 2021 and 745 for 2020.

Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 26,802 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 22,009 in 2025 against 21,382 in 2024, up 2.9 percent.

Through August 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 19,401 arrests, against 17,257 in the same months of 2025.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Shelby County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Shelby 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 4,000 people, down from about 4,760 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 5,136 beds, and it ran at 78 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.

A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Tennessee Department of Correction lists its inmates at foil.app.tn.gov/foil/search.jsp.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Shelby County

For Shelby County the place to look is the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at shelbycountytn.gov/m/directory/department?did=508, phone (901) 222-1300).

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 Shelby 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 Shelby County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
  • An arrest in Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown or Millington: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
  • An arrest by the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, West Tennessee Violent Crime Task Force or Southwest Tennessee 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, (901) 222-1300, handles discovery for pending cases.
  • Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.

Cities in Shelby County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the seven cities in Shelby County: Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown and Millington. Arlington and Lakeland 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 Shelby County Circuit and Chancery Courts.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Shelby County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Shelby County each year?

Memphis reported 16,348 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 26,802 between them.

Where are people arrested in Shelby County booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Shelby 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 Shelby County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Shelby 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 Shelby 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.