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.
Sullivan County, Tennessee, has about 163,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, three city agencies and three 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 Sullivan 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: Sullivan County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Sullivan County
The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Sullivan County. It reported 4,896 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists three cities in Sullivan County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Kingsport, 57,109 residents: 3,752 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bristol, 27,867 residents: 1,150 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bluff City, 1,838 residents: 91 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 Johnson City Police Department is listed by the FBI across three counties including Sullivan County, so its arrests are not broken out for Sullivan County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Sullivan County: Drug Task Force's 2nd Judicial District and Tri-Cities Regional Airport (other); Northeast State Community College (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Sullivan 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.
- Sullivan County Sheriff's Office: 4,896 for 2025, 5,006 for 2024, 6,662 for 2023, 7,354 for 2022, 6,246 for 2021 and 5,998 for 2020.
- Kingsport: 3,752 for 2025, 3,163 for 2024, 2,909 for 2023, 2,714 for 2022, 3,246 for 2021 and 3,255 for 2020.
- Bristol: 1,150 for 2025, 1,116 for 2024, 1,390 for 2023, 1,567 for 2022, 1,876 for 2021 and 1,638 for 2020.
- Bluff City: 91 for 2025, 90 for 2024, 103 for 2023, 40 for 2022, 40 for 2020 and 32 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 9,889 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 9,889 in 2025 against 9,375 in 2024, up 5.5 percent.
Through August 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 6,927 arrests, against 6,947 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Sullivan County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Sullivan 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 930 people, down from about 980 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 659 beds, and it ran at 141 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office at scsotn.com/inmateRoster (page title: Inmate Roster | Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, TN), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
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 Sullivan County
Whether someone was arrested in Sullivan County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Sullivan 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/all/all?tid=136); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at sullivancountytn.gov/district-attorney, phone (423) 279-3278).
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 Sullivan 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 Sullivan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Kingsport, Bristol or Bluff City: 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 Drug Task Force's 2nd Judicial District, Tri-Cities Regional Airport or Northeast 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, (423) 279-3278, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Sullivan County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/clerks/all/all?tid=136.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sullivancountytn.gov (page title: Public Records REQUEST | Sullivan County TN).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Sullivan County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the three cities in Sullivan County: Kingsport, Bristol and Bluff City.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Sullivan County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Sullivan 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 Sullivan County each year?
The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office reported 4,896 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 9,889 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Sullivan County?
Look on the custody page of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office at scsotn.com/inmateRoster. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Sullivan County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Sullivan 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 Sullivan County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Sullivan 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at sullivancountytn.gov.
Is this the official Sullivan 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.