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Benton County Sheriff's Office

County agency in Benton, Washington, United States. Reports crime data to the FBI, and has done since 2011.

ORI
WA0030000
Type
County
County
Benton
State
Washington (WA)
FBI reporting
Reporting since 2011-01-01
Location
46.222, -119.2205

Workforce

As reported to the FBI for 2025, covering a population of 41,691.

71Sworn officers
15Civilian staff
2.06Employees per 1,000 people
41,691Population served
YearOfficersCiviliansPopulation servedPer 1,000
2025711541,6912.06
2024721345,1461.88
2023701441,5962.02
2022681441,7531.96
2021601239,6481.82
2020681340,2562.01
2019731340,2642.14
20186313040,7734.73
2017631338,9531.95
2016581338,6151.84
2015571337,8031.85
2014561237,4731.81

Officer and civilian counts are full-time employees as filed by the agency in its annual return. A dash means the agency did not report that figure for that year — it does not mean zero.

Crime and clearances

Offences and clearances filed by Benton County Sheriff's Office in its monthly returns to the FBI, added up by calendar year, 2019–2026. Violent crime and property crime are the FBI’s two categories. These are the counts as filed: Police Census does not turn them into a rate.

Violent crime
YearMonths filedOffencesClearedCleared as % of offences
20267 of 12391948.7%
202512552443.6%
202412693347.8%
202312923032.6%
202212752229.3%
202112786380.8%
2020121047168.3%
201912785367.9%
Property crime
YearMonths filedOffencesClearedCleared as % of offences
20267 of 12156149.0%
202512308154.9%
202412511295.7%
202312465296.2%
202212652213.2%
2021125115210.2%
2020126588613.1%
2019123986616.6%

Reading the table. “Not reported” means the agency filed nothing for that year; it does not mean zero. A 0 is a figure the agency filed. For 2026 the FBI is still collecting: that year is not complete in the file we read, so where this agency has no 2026 figures the table says “Not yet in the FBI’s file” rather than “Not reported”. We can see that the agency is absent from the file so far; we cannot tell whether it has not filed or has not yet been published, and we do not guess. A year marked “7 of 12” adds up only the months the agency filed, so it is not a full-year total. A dash in the last column means the percentage cannot be worked out: it needs both figures, and at least one offence.

“Cleared” is the FBI file’s clearance count for the year. Clearances in a year can relate to offences from earlier years, so the percentage is not the share of that year’s offences that were solved, and it can exceed 100%. Figures are not adjusted: a year far below the agency’s neighbouring years, or a 0 beside many offences, may reflect what was submitted rather than what happened. The file does not say which, and Police Census does not guess.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, summarized data for agency record WA0030000.

Arrests

Arrests made by Benton County Sheriff's Office, all offences combined, as filed with the FBI and added up by calendar year, 2019–2026.

YearMonths filedArrests
20267 of 12122
202512301
202412316
202312274
202212230
202112366
202012724
201912748

“Not reported” means the agency filed nothing for that year; it does not mean zero. A year marked “7 of 12” adds up only the months filed. For 2026 the FBI is still collecting, so an absent agency reads “Not yet in the FBI’s file”: absent from the file so far, which is not the same claim as having filed nothing. Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, arrest data for agency record WA0030000.

Bias-motivated incidents in the FBI’s file

1 incident appears in the FBI’s hate crime file for Benton County Sheriff's Office for 2024, as at 14 August 2026. The table lists every year from 1991 to 2025 for which the file has at least one.

Incidents appearing in the FBI’s file, as at 14 August 2026
YearIncidents appearing in the file
20241
20232
20221
20131
20121
20032
20001
Bias motivation recorded, in the FBI’s words, 2000–2024
Bias motivationIncidents
Anti-Hispanic or Latino2
Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender (Mixed Group)2
Anti-Mental Disability2
Anti-Black or African American1
Anti-Church of Jesus Christ1
Anti-Gay (Male)1

Absence from this file is not a zero. The file lists incidents that were reported to the FBI. An agency can be missing from it because it recorded none, because it did not report, or because it does not take part in the FBI’s hate crime program, and nothing Police Census holds can tell these apart. In any one year the file lists incidents for only a minority of the agencies the FBI counts as reporting.

The figures are counts of incidents as they appear in the file, as at 14 August 2026; Police Census does not turn them into a rate and does not compare them with other agencies. Offence and bias wording is the FBI’s own, unaltered. Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, additional datasets, hate crime bulk file, agency record WA0030000.

Deaths during encounters with this agency

3 people have died during an encounter with Benton County Sheriff's Office between 2014 and 2023, according to the two datasets named below.

3Deaths recorded
7.20Per 100,000 people policed
2014–2023Period covered
Recorded causeDeaths
Gunshot3

What this figure is and is not. It counts deaths recorded as occurring during an encounter with this agency. It is not a finding of wrongdoing, and a death being recorded here says nothing about whether it was lawful. Many involve armed confrontations; some involve none. Police Census publishes counts only and does not name the people who died.

Source: every one of these records comes from Mapping Police Violence, which records deaths from 2013–2026. They are not official statistics, and no federal database records this comprehensively. See Deaths for how these records are compiled. Mapping Police Violence data is displayed with attribution to its compiler; the written scope of this site’s right to display it is being confirmed (note dated 11 October 2026).

Washington use-of-force policy

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office publishes a register of law enforcement agencies. Its question is whether the agency’s use-of-force policy is consistent with the AGO model policy. The register lists this agency as “Benton County Sheriff's Office” and answers:

Yes

Last updated, as the AGO’s register shows it: 2022-12-08. That is the date on the register, not a date Police Census checked the policy, and the answer may have changed since.

Policy document linked by the AGO

Source: Washington Attorney General, law enforcement use of force and de-escalation, read on 2026-10-08. The register’s entries are matched to FBI agency records by name; Police Census attaches one only where exactly one agency fits.

Also policing Benton

Jurisdictions overlap. These agencies are also recorded against the same county, so a single address may be covered by more than one of them.

Source

Agency identity, type, jurisdiction, coordinates and reporting status are as published by the FBI Crime Data Explorer, agency record WA0030000. Police Census reproduces these values without adjustment. Where the FBI publishes nothing, this page says so rather than estimating.

Believe something on this page is wrong? Tell us at corrections@policecensus.com — every correction is published on Corrections.