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.
Wayne County, Tennessee, has about 16,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office and three 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 Wayne 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: Wayne County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Wayne County
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Wayne County. It reported 369 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists three cities in Wayne County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Waynesboro, 2,311 residents: 75 arrests reported for 2025.
- Clifton, 2,124 residents: 17 arrests reported for 2020.
- Collinwood, 903 residents: 5 arrests reported for 2020.
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 Wayne 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.
- Wayne County Sheriff's Office: 369 for 2024, 464 for 2023, 488 for 2022, 450 for 2021, 637 for 2020 and 495 for 2019.
- Waynesboro: 75 for 2025, 37 for 2024, 71 for 2023, 108 for 2022, 114 for 2021 and 95 for 2020.
- Clifton: 17 for 2020 and 22 for 2019.
- Collinwood: 5 for 2020 and 23 for 2019.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2020 on file reported 754 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2020 and 2019 complete reported 754 in 2020 against 651 in 2019, up 16 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Wayne County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Wayne 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 130 people, down from about 150 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 128 beds, and it ran at 103 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 Wayne County Sheriff's Office at waynecountytn.org/sheriff/inmate_search.php (page title: Inmate Search), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 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 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 Wayne County
Whether someone was arrested in Wayne County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-22).
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 Wayne 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 Wayne County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Waynesboro, Clifton or Collinwood: 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 Wayne County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the three cities in Wayne County: Waynesboro, Clifton and Collinwood.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Wayne County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Wayne County each year?
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office reported 369 arrests to the FBI for 2024. For 2020, the latest year most of the agencies in Wayne County sent in full, the four with every month on file reported 754 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Wayne County?
Look on the custody page of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office at waynecountytn.org/sheriff/inmate_search.php. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Wayne County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Wayne 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 Wayne County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Wayne 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 Wayne 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.