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 24, 2026 and October 4, 2026.
Clarke County, Iowa, has about 9,500 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Clarke County Sheriff's Office and one city 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 County Attorney files charges, a case in the Iowa District Court for Clarke County. 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: Clarke County public records, Iowa arrest records, Iowa inmate search and Iowa criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Clarke County
The Clarke County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Clarke County. It reported 121 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists one city in Clarke County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Osceola, 5,585 residents: 125 arrests reported for 2025.
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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Clarke 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.
- Osceola: 125 for 2025, 124 for 2024, 136 for 2023, 162 for 2022, 176 for 2021 and 222 for 2020.
- Clarke County Sheriff's Office: 121 for 2024, 115 for 2023, 155 for 2022, 148 for 2020 and 174 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 245 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 245 in 2024 against 251 in 2023, down 2.4 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Clarke County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Clarke County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2019 the jail held about 22 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 30 beds, and it ran at 73 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 Clarke County Sheriff's Office at clarkecountysheriff.org (page title: Clarke County Jail Roster Lookup, IA, Inmate Search), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Iowa Department of Corrections lists its inmates at doc.iowa.gov/inmate-family-services.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Clarke County
An arrest in Clarke County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Clarke County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Iowa District Court for Clarke County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at iowacourts.gov/iowa-courts/district-court/judicial-district-5/distr..., phone 641-342-6096); the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at clarkecounty.iowa.gov/departments/attorney, phone (641) 342-3423).
Statewide, Iowa Courts Online is the Iowa Judicial Branch's free statewide case search.
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 Clarke County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 Clarke County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Osceola: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, (641) 342-3423, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Iowa District Court for Clarke County, through the court records page at iowacourts.gov, phone 641-342-6096.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Clarke County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the three cities in Clarke County: Osceola. Murray and Woodburn 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 Iowa District Court for Clarke County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Clarke County each year?
Osceola reported 125 arrests to the FBI for 2025. For 2024, the latest year most of the agencies in Clarke County sent in full, the two with every month on file reported 245 between them.
Where are people arrested in Clarke County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Clarke County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Clarke County?
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 Clarke County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Clarke County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 Clarke 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.