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 September 24, 2026.

About this guide

Spokane County, Washington, has about 556,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and one campus 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Spokane County Superior Court. 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: Spokane County public records, Washington arrest records, Washington inmate search and Washington criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Spokane County

The Spokane County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Spokane County. It reported 1,547 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:

  • Spokane, 230,609 residents: 4,567 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Spokane Valley, 108,267 residents: 2,171 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Liberty Lake, 13,353 residents: 115 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Cheney, 12,700 residents: 177 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Airway Heights, 11,950 residents: 274 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.

The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Spokane County: Eastern Washington University (campus police).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Spokane 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.

  • Spokane: 4,567 for 2025, 5,037 for 2024, 4,752 for 2023, 3,976 for 2022, 4,388 for 2021 and 5,304 for 2020.
  • Spokane Valley: 2,171 for 2025, 2,229 for 2024, 2,502 for 2023, 2,253 for 2022, 1,879 for 2021 and 2,563 for 2020.
  • Spokane County Sheriff's Office: 1,547 for 2025, 1,576 for 2024, 1,495 for 2023, 1,255 for 2022, 1,457 for 2021 and 1,864 for 2020.
  • Cheney: 177 for 2025, 243 for 2024, 237 for 2023, 231 for 2022, 172 for 2021 and 215 for 2020.
  • Liberty Lake: 115 for 2025, 97 for 2023, 96 for 2022, 87 for 2021 and 99 for 2020; 2024 is missing months.
  • Airway Heights: 274 for 2024, 256 for 2021 and 441 for 2019; 2020, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.

Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 8,577 arrests that year. The four of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 8,462 in 2025 against 9,085 in 2024, down 6.9 percent.

Through June 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 4,269 arrests, against 4,195 in the same months of 2025.

Airway Heights reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Spokane County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Spokane 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 860 people, down from about 940 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 978 beds, and it ran at 83 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 Spokane County Sheriff's Office at spokanecounty.gov/359/Booking-Classification (page title: Booking & Classification | Spokane County, WA), phone 509-477-2278, 1100 W. Mallon Avenue Spokane, WA 99260, 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 sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Washington State Department of Corrections lists its inmates at doc.wa.gov/records/incarcerated-data-search/incarcerated-search.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Spokane County

Whether someone was arrested in Spokane County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Spokane County Superior Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at courts.wa.gov/search/index.cfm); the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at spokanecounty.gov/332/Prosecuting-Attorney, phone 509-477-3662).

Statewide, Washington Courts Search Case Records is the Administrative Office of the Courts' free statewide case search.

Washington is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: WATCH lets anyone search conviction records by name online, for $12 a search, through the Washington State Patrol. 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 Spokane 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 Public Records Act (RCW 42.56) the agency must answer within 5 business days, and it may charge for copies at 15 cents a page, and set fees for electronic records.

  • An arrest by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 509-477-2278.
  • An arrest in Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Cheney or Airway Heights: 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 Eastern Washington University: the records office of the agency involved.
  • A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 509-477-3662, handles discovery for pending cases.
  • The court file of a case that was filed: the Spokane County Superior Court, through the court records page at courts.wa.gov/search/index.cfm.
  • Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.

Cities in Spokane County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the 13 cities in Spokane County: Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Cheney and Airway Heights. Deer Park, Medical Lake, Millwood, Rockford, Fairfield, Spangle, Latah and Waverly 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 Spokane County Superior Court.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Spokane 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 Spokane County each year?

Spokane reported 4,567 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 8,577 between them.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Spokane County?

Look on the custody page of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office at spokanecounty.gov/359/Booking-Classification, or call 509-477-2278. It covers people booked into the county jail.

Where are people arrested in Spokane County booked?

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

Are arrest records public in Spokane County?

The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Washington State Patrol: WATCH lets anyone search conviction records by name online, for $12. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Public Records Act (RCW 42.56).

How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Spokane County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Spokane County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Public Records Act (RCW 42.56) the answer is due within 5 business days.

Is this the official Spokane 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.