Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 26, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Council Bluffs, Iowa, in Pottawattamie County, has about 63,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the County Attorney files charges, a case in the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Council Bluffs public records, Pottawattamie County arrest records, Iowa arrest records and Iowa inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Council Bluffs
The FBI lists Council Bluffs with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Council Bluffs Police Department. It reported 1,696 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 483 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Pottawattamie County: the Union Pacific Railroad Police (other).
How Many Arrests Council Bluffs Reports
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them 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.
- Council Bluffs: 1,696 for 2025, 1,663 for 2024, 1,733 for 2023, 1,849 for 2022, 1,923 for 2021 and 2,962 for 2020.
Council Bluffs's 1,696 arrests in 2025 were up 2 percent from 1,663 in 2024.
Through July 2026, Council Bluffs reported 1,355 arrests, against 930 in the same months of 2025.
Across Pottawattamie County, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,179 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Council Bluffs Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Council Bluffs 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 2021 the jail held about 150 people, down from about 280 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 288 beds, and it ran at 98 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.pottcounty-ia.gov/jail (page title: Pottawattamie County Jail Division | Council Bluffs, Iowa), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Iowa Department of Corrections lists its inmates at doc.iowa.gov/inmate-family-services.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Council Bluffs
For Council Bluffs the place to look is Iowa Courts Online, the Iowa Judicial Branch's free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed.
Iowa is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: anyone can request a name-based criminal history check online, through the Iowa Division of Criminal 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 Council Bluffs
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Iowa Open Records Law (Chapter 22) the agency must answer without delay; the law sets no fixed number of days, and a delay past 20 days must be justified, and it may charge the actual cost of copying and retrieval.
- An arrest by the Council Bluffs police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at councilbluffs-ia.gov/DocumentCenter/View/9194/Investigative-File-Re... (page title: CBPD INVESTIGATIVE REQUEST FORM Council Bluffs Police Department), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Pottawattamie County guide covers every agency in the county: Pottawattamie County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Council Bluffs each year?
Council Bluffs reported 1,696 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Council Bluffs booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Council Bluffs?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation: anyone can request a name-based criminal history check online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Iowa Open Records Law (Chapter 22).
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Council Bluffs?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Council Bluffs police for its own arrests, the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Iowa Open Records Law (Chapter 22) the answer is due without delay; the law sets no fixed number of days, and a delay past 20 days must be justified.
Is this the official Council Bluffs website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.