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. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site on September 24, 2026.
Bear Lake County, Idaho, has about 6,800 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Bear Lake 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Bear Lake County District Court. 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: Bear Lake County public records, Idaho arrest records, Idaho inmate search and Idaho criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Bear Lake County
The Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Bear Lake County. It reported 16 arrests for 2025.
One city in Bear Lake County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Montpelier, 2,696 residents: 38 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 Bear Lake County
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.
- Montpelier: 38 for 2025, 32 for 2024, 75 for 2023, 87 for 2022, 65 for 2021 and 71 for 2020.
- Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office: 16 for 2025, 23 for 2024, 17 for 2023, 10 for 2022, 17 for 2021 and 14 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 54 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 54 in 2025 against 55 in 2024, down 1.8 percent.
Through April 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 6 arrests, against 21 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bear Lake County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Bear Lake 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.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office at bearlakecounty.info/sheriff.html (page title: Bear Lake County Sheriff | BEAR LAKE COUNTY IDAHO), phone (208) 945-2155, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Idaho Department of Correction, whose inmate locator is at idoc.idaho.gov/content/prisons/resident-client-search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Bear Lake County
Whether someone was arrested in Bear Lake County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Bear Lake County District Court, kept by the Clerk of the District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at bearlakecounty.info/prosecuting-attorney.html, phone (208) 945-2155).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at bearlakecounty.info/courts.html (page title: Bear Lake County Magistrate Court | BEAR LAKE COUNTY IDAHO), phone (208) 945-2155, belongs to a lower court, not to the Bear Lake County District Court.
Statewide, iCourt Portal is the Idaho courts' free statewide case search.
Idaho is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: name-based conviction checks are open to the public, through the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification. 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 Bear Lake 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 Idaho Public Records Act the agency must answer within 3 working days, or 10 when more time is needed, and it may charge copying after the first 100 pages and labor after the first two hours.
- An arrest by the Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (208) 945-2155.
- An arrest in Montpelier: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, (208) 945-2155, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Bear Lake County District Court it is kept by the Clerk of the District Court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at bearlakecounty.info/courts.html, phone (208) 945-2155, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Cities in Bear Lake County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the five cities in Bear Lake County: Montpelier. Paris, Georgetown, Bloomington and St. Charles 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 Bear Lake County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bear Lake County each year?
Montpelier reported 38 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 54 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bear Lake County?
Ask the Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office at (208) 945-2155; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at bearlakecounty.info/sheriff.html.
Where are people arrested in Bear Lake County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bear Lake County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification: name-based conviction checks are open to the public. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Idaho Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Bear Lake County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bear Lake County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Idaho Public Records Act the answer is due within 3 working days, or 10 when more time is needed.
Is this the official Bear Lake 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.