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 30, 2026.
Winneshiek County, Iowa, has about 20,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Winneshiek 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 Winneshiek 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: Winneshiek County public records, Iowa arrest records, Iowa inmate search and Iowa criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Winneshiek County
The Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Winneshiek County. It reported 127 arrests for 2025.
One city in Winneshiek County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Decorah, 7,454 residents: 151 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 Winneshiek 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.
- Decorah: 151 for 2025, 135 for 2024, 105 for 2023, 69 for 2022, 61 for 2021 and 97 for 2020.
- Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office: 127 for 2025, 94 for 2024, 127 for 2023, 101 for 2022 and 183 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 278 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 278 in 2025 against 229 in 2024, up 21 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 93 arrests, against 171 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Winneshiek County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Winneshiek 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 18 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 13 beds, and it ran at 138 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 Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office at winneshiekcounty.iowa.gov/departments/sheriff/current-inmates (page title: CURRENT INMATES | Winneshiek County), phone 563-382-4268, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 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 Winneshiek County
Whether someone was arrested in Winneshiek County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; Iowa Courts Online, the Iowa Judicial Branch's free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at winneshiekcounty.iowa.gov/departments/attorney, phone 563-382-3773).
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 Winneshiek 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 Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 563-382-4268.
- An arrest in Decorah: 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, 563-382-3773, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Winneshiek County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the eight cities in Winneshiek County: Decorah. Calmar, Ossian, Spillville, Fort Atkinson, Ridgeway, Castalia and Jackson Junction 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 Winneshiek County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Winneshiek County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Decorah (7,454)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Winneshiek County each year?
Decorah reported 151 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 278 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Winneshiek County?
Look on the custody page of the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office at winneshiekcounty.iowa.gov, or call 563-382-4268. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Winneshiek County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Winneshiek 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 Winneshiek County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Winneshiek 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 Winneshiek 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.