Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. 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.
Decatur County, Iowa, has about 7,700 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Decatur 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 Decatur County. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it.
This guide covers who makes arrests, arrest counts, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Decatur County public records, Iowa arrest records, Iowa inmate search and Iowa criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Decatur County
The Decatur County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Decatur County.
One city in Decatur County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Leon, 1,779 residents.
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.
Arrest Counts on File for Decatur County
The FBI publishes monthly arrest counts on the Crime Data Explorer. For Decatur County the counts on file are partial: Leon and Decatur County Sheriff's Office have sent some months but no full year since 2019, so no annual total is given here.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Decatur County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Decatur 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 2019 the jail held about 8 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 21 beds, and it ran at 38 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 Decatur County Sheriff's Office at decaturcountyiowa.gov/news/2588 (page title: The Sheriff's Office has moved! | - Decatur County, IA), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Iowa Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at doc.iowa.gov/inmate-family-services.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Decatur County
For Decatur County the place to look is the case index of the Iowa District Court for Decatur 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 641-219-4265).
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 Decatur 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 Decatur County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Leon: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Iowa District Court for Decatur County, through the court records page at iowacourts.gov, phone 641-219-4265.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Decatur County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the ten cities in Decatur County: Leon. Lamoni, Grand River, Davis City, Van Wert, Decatur, Garden Grove, Weldon, Pleasanton and Le Roy 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 Decatur County.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are people arrested in Decatur County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Decatur County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Decatur 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 Decatur County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Decatur 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 Decatur 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.