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 on September 24, 2026.
Dallas County, Iowa, has about 115,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office and six city agencies. 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 Dallas 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: Dallas County public records, Iowa arrest records, Iowa inmate search and Iowa criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Dallas County
The Dallas County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Dallas County. It reported 280 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists six cities in Dallas County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Waukee, 34,420 residents: 559 arrests reported for 2025.
- Perry, 8,046 residents: 252 arrests reported for 2024.
- Adel, 6,763 residents: 98 arrests reported for 2025.
- Van Meter, 1,840 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2025.
- Woodward, 1,383 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2025.
- De Soto, 937 residents: 10 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.
The Urbandale Police Department, the Clive Police Department and the West Des Moines Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Dallas County, so their arrests are not broken out for Dallas County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Dallas 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.
- Waukee: 559 for 2025, 458 for 2024, 503 for 2023, 459 for 2022, 334 for 2021 and 323 for 2020.
- Dallas County Sheriff's Office: 280 for 2025, 203 for 2024, 209 for 2023, 271 for 2022, 372 for 2021 and 175 for 2020.
- Adel: 98 for 2025, 91 for 2024, 67 for 2022, 72 for 2020 and 86 for 2019; 2021 and 2023 are missing months.
- De Soto: 10 for 2025, 16 for 2024 and 29 for 2023.
- Woodward: 4 for 2025, 2 for 2024 and 12 for 2023.
- Van Meter: 2 for 2025, 10 for 2024 and 5 for 2023.
- Perry: 252 for 2024, 236 for 2023, 190 for 2022, 181 for 2021, 220 for 2020 and 243 for 2019.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 953 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 953 in 2025 against 780 in 2024, up 22 percent.
Through August 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 610 arrests, against 640 in the same months of 2025.
Perry reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Dallas County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Dallas County 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 46 people, up from about 33 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 36 beds, and it ran at 92 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 Dallas County Sheriff's Office at inmates.dallascountyiowa.gov/NewWorld.InmateInquiry/dallas (page title: Inmate Search), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
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 Dallas County
Whether someone was arrested in Dallas County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Iowa District Court for Dallas 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 515-993-7018); the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dallascountyiowa.gov/163/Attorney, phone 515-993-5060).
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 Dallas County
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 Dallas County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Waukee, Perry, Adel, Van Meter, Woodward or De Soto: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 515-993-5060, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, through the court records page at iowacourts.gov, phone 515-993-7018.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dallascountyiowa.gov/263/Open-Records-Request (page title: Open Records Request | Dallas County, IA).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Dallas County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the 14 cities in Dallas County: Waukee, Perry, Adel, Van Meter, Woodward and De Soto. Granger, Dallas Center, Redfield, Dexter, Minburn, Linden, Bouton and Dawson 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 Dallas County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Dallas County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Dallas County each year?
Waukee reported 559 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 953 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Dallas County?
Look on the custody page of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office at inmates.dallascountyiowa.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Dallas County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Dallas 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 Dallas County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Dallas 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dallascountyiowa.gov/263/Open-Records-Request.
Is this the official Dallas 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.