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 4, 2026.
Union County, Tennessee, has about 21,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Union County Sheriff's Office and two 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 Union 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: Union County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Union County
The Union County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Union County. It reported 546 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Union County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Maynardville, 2,598 residents: 107 arrests reported for 2024.
- Plainview, 2,226 residents: 26 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 Union 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.
- Union County Sheriff's Office: 546 for 2025, 693 for 2024, 857 for 2023, 995 for 2022, 1,120 for 2021 and 985 for 2020.
- Maynardville: 107 for 2024, 96 for 2023, 78 for 2022, 145 for 2021, 109 for 2020 and 266 for 2019.
- Plainview: 26 for 2024, 19 for 2023, 17 for 2020 and 43 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 826 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 826 in 2024 against 972 in 2023, down 15 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Union County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Union 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 74 people, down from about 98 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 76 beds, and it ran at 97 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 Union County Sheriff's Office at unioncountytn.gov/sheriffs-department-and-jail (page title: Sheriff’s Department and Jail | Union County Tennessee), phone 865-992-2349, 130 Veteran's Street, Maynardville, TN 37807, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Union County
For Union County the place to look is the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-8).
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 Union 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 Union County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 865-992-2349.
- An arrest in Maynardville or Plainview: 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 handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Union County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the three cities in Union County: Maynardville and Plainview. Luttrell 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 Union County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Union County each year?
The Union County Sheriff's Office reported 546 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Union County sent in full, the three with every month on file reported 826 between them.
Where are people arrested in Union County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Union County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Union 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 Union County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Union 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 Union 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.