How Fremont Arrest Records Move
Fremont is Newaygo County's largest city. The 2020 Michigan Manual put its population at 4,516. That figure is not an arrest count. The Fremont Police Department comes first for anything its officers handled. Sheriff Bob Mendham runs the county jail. The jail sits in White Cloud and serves as the county's central custody point.
A police report and a jail booking are two different records. Someone arrested in Fremont can be cited and released. Others get transferred, booked elsewhere, or held on an outside-county or federal matter. So a clear custody check can miss an arrest. The city and county publish no Fremont roster, same-day feed, multi-day blotter, warrant portal, or mugshot gallery.
Official Fremont Publication Channels
The right channel depends on where the case stands. Official sources come first because each has a defined custodian and scope, and no single Fremont search covers every stage.
| Channel | What it can show | Photo? | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fremont Police | Its incident or arrest report | Only if held and releasable | Contact the department and ask for the current FOIA route |
| Newaygo County Jail | Current county custody and booking records | No public gallery found | Official jail page or 231-689-7303 |
| Newaygo MI-VINE | Participating custody status and alerts | No | County VINE page |
| County courts | Arraignment, bail and later case events | Not a booking-photo source | 78th District or 27th Circuit Court |
| MDOC OTIS | State prisoners, parolees and probationers in scope | May display an MDOC image | Official OTIS search |
| News and commercial pages | Selective stories or old reposts | Varies | Use only as a dated lead and verify officially |
Arrested in Fremont: Lookup Steps
Start with the question the source must answer. Then keep the same name and approximate date across every check, so a custody result never gets mistaken for an incident report.
- Contact Fremont Police for an event handled by city officers. Give the name, date, location and case number if known.
- Check Newaygo County Jail and MI-VINE for current county custody. The jail is at 1035 E James Street, White Cloud, and operates around the clock, though its administration office has weekday hours.
- Use the 78th District Court for arraignment, bail, misdemeanors and preliminary examinations. A felony matter after bind-over belongs with the 27th Circuit Court.
- Request a booking card, jacket, photograph, or other releasable county record through county FOIA if it is not publicly displayed.
- Use MDOC OTIS only when the person may be in state prison or under MDOC parole or probation supervision.
Write down the source date and custody status. A released person can vanish from a custody system while the police, booking, and court records stay with their custodians.
Fremont Police Records Requests
The Fremont Police Department sits at 101 E Main Street, Fremont, MI 49412. The phone number is 231-924-2100. Hours run Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., plus Friday, 8:00 a.m. to noon. After-hours central dispatch is 231-689-5288. The department's 2024 annual report covers FOIA work and records retention. It posts no dedicated current FOIA form.
Call or write and ask for the FOIA coordinator. Request the form, fee schedule, delivery options, and response timeline. Give the incident date, name, location, case number if known, and the exact record sought. Ask about a photograph separately, since one may exist and still not be released. For a county booking jacket, ask the county directly. Michigan's access policy sits in MCL 15.231, while MCL 15.243 lists exemptions.
101 E Main Street
Fremont, MI 49412
231-924-2100
After hours: 231-689-5288
Fremont Police Source View
The official Fremont Police page is the city source for department details and records-routing guidance.
The page helps identify the proper agency. It is not an arrest roster and displays no gallery of arrested people.
County Jail After a Fremont Arrest
Newaygo County Jail handles the county custody check. Not every Fremont arrest lands there or appears right away. The public page has no searchable names table. There is no recent-booking feed either. When MI-VINE is unclear, call 231-689-7303. Say whether the question concerns custody, bond, a booking record, or a court case. Sheriff Bob Mendham's official sheriff page confirms the sheriff's jail role and lists local departments.
The jail also holds U.S. Marshals Service detainees. Those come from the West Michigan District. For such holds, the record's owner may differ from the place of confinement, so never promise a county booking photo for a federal matter. VINE supports custody notifications rather than a full arrest narrative, and the sheriff's app is documented for news, alerts, tips, and feedback instead of bookings.
Fremont Arrest Coverage Limits
Fox 17 covers Newaygo County, and regional blotters from Big Rapids or the Pioneer add dated context for some Fremont events. Those outlets choose what to print. They cannot show every arrest or current custody. Mugshots.com keeps an older Newaygo County page with a Fremont filter. It is an unofficial historical archive. Nothing there follows a current publication schedule. RecentlyBooked, Busted Newspaper, Mugshots Zone, and Arrests.org list no Newaygo page at all.
Never copy or rehost a third-party booking photo. An old repost is not present custody. Verify each piece with the originating police record, county jail or VINE status, and the court docket. No commercial source replaces those official checks.
From Arrest to Court Record
An arrest in Fremont creates several records, not one. It may list a name, booking time, arresting agency, charge, bond, court, custody status, and photo availability. Newaygo County's site publishes no live roster with those fields, so a request should stick to what you actually know. From there the case moves through the courts. The 78th District Court handles the early proceedings. Felonies pass to the 27th Circuit Court after bind-over. MDOC's Offender Tracking Information System enters later still. It covers state prisoners and some parole or probation records. OTIS is not a Newaygo County jail roster, and an entry may reflect an older conviction rather than a fresh Fremont arrest. Treating records from different dates and custodians as one case is the most common mistake a searcher makes.
Note: Verify names, dates, agencies and current status with the originating office because public pages and third-party copies can lag.
Verifying a Fremont Record
Disagreement between two sources calls for the custodian. Trust the record closest to the event, then ask its keeper when it was last updated. Fremont Police can fix its own report. The jail can correct a booking or custody entry. The court can explain a listed case event. Keep your request wording and every reply on file. Otherwise an old news item gets mistaken for a current official statement. For photos, ask who made the image, who holds it now, and whether a lawful copy exists.