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New York · Central New York

Onondaga County: adult DWI arrest data

Onondaga County (Central New York) had 953 arrests of adults for fingerprintable DWI offenses in 2025, as the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services counts them. In 2025 it was 10th of the 62 New York counties by count and made up 3.3% of the state’s 28,628 adult DWI arrests. This page has the county’s counts year by year, and sets them beside the other four counties of Central New York.

01Arrests

Onondaga County adult DWI arrests by year

Year by year, as the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services counts them.

The count was highest in 2016 (1,338 adult DWI arrests) and lowest in 2022 (802); 2025 is 28.8% below the 2016 figure. That is up 7.3% from 888 in 2024. Of the 953 arrests in 2025, 146 (15.3%) were felonies and 807 misdemeanors.

Counted by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services · 2015–2025

953 adult DWI arrests in 2025

−28.8% from 1,338 in 2016, the highest year in 2015–2025

Source: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, as of Oct 20, 2026. Arrests of people 18 or older for DWI (felony and misdemeanor), by county, from the Division of Criminal Justice Services table 'Adult Arrests 18 and Older by County: Beginning 1970'. The Division counts arrests for fingerprintable offenses only. Population: U.S. Census Bureau, county population estimates, Vintage 2025 (July 1, 2025), all residents and residents 18 or older.

  • Counts are arrests, not people, and only people 18 or older. Because the table counts adults only, a rate per 100,000 should divide by the number of residents 18 or older, not by all residents.
  • Fingerprintable offenses only, by the Division's definition: a lesser impaired-driving charge that is only a traffic infraction is not in the table, so this is narrower than every impaired-driving arrest.
  • County is where the arrest was recorded, not where the person lives.
  • The five New York City counties together had 3,386 DWI arrests in 2025; the New York City Police Department's own arrests for intoxicated and impaired driving are within 1.3% to 2.5% of the Division's count in every year 2019 to 2025.
  • The table does not say whether the latest year can still change.
  • Population is the Census Bureau's estimate for July 1, 2025 (county population estimates, Vintage 2025), not a Division number. The same figure is used for every year, so a rate for an earlier year is only approximate, and the further back, the less so.
The numbers, year by year
Adult DWI arrests in Onondaga County by year, and the felony and misdemeanor arrests they are made of
YearAdult DWI arrestsFelonyMisdemeanor
20151,128172956
20161,3382051,133
20171,2571881,069
20181,3221861,136
20191,2361721,064
2020925135790
2021951139812
2022802107695
2023968120848
2024888133755
2025953146807

Onondaga County among every New York countyAll New York counties by year

Counts are arrests of people 18 or older for fingerprintable DWI offenses as the Division of Criminal Justice Services counts them: arrests, not people, and a lesser impaired-driving charge that is only a traffic infraction is not among them. They are not a measure of how much impaired driving there is: enforcement effort shapes them. A county is where the arrest was recorded, not where the person lives, so a county’s count says more about where police stop drivers than about who lives there, and no county gets a rate.

02Central New York

Central New York, county by county

The State of New York groups its 62 counties into ten regions, each with a Regional Economic Development Council. Central New York is Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties.
Central New York: adult DWI arrests by county in 2025 and 2015, the change between, and each county’s share of Central New York
County20252015Change since 2015Share of Central New York
Onondaga County this page9531,128−15.5%52.1%
Oswego County350426−17.8%19.1%
Cortland County189180+5%10.3%
Madison County174208−16.3%9.5%
Cayuga County163220−25.9%8.9%
All five counties1,8292,162−15.4%100%

Together the five counties were 6.4% of the state’s 28,628 adult DWI arrests in 2025. Counts are where the arrest was recorded, not where the person lives, and they are counts, not rates: the table does not adjust for how many people live in each county. The regions are the State of New York’s own: Regional Economic Development Councils: the ten regions (2024 guidebook, page 4).

03Related

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Data note: The counts are arrests of adults for fingerprintable DWI offenses as the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services counts them, with the caveats listed under the figure. This page is general information for data analysis, not legal advice. See the Disclaimer.