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.
Custer County, Idaho, has about 4,600 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Custer 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 Custer 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: Custer County public records, Idaho arrest records, Idaho inmate search and Idaho criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Custer County
The Custer County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Custer County. It reported 35 arrests for 2025.
One city in Custer County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Challis, 944 residents: 12 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 Custer 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.
- Custer County Sheriff's Office: 35 for 2025, 45 for 2024, 51 for 2023, 47 for 2022, 31 for 2021 and 28 for 2020.
- Challis: 12 for 2025, 22 for 2024, 24 for 2023, 26 for 2022, 9 for 2021 and 10 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 47 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 47 in 2025 against 67 in 2024, down 30 percent.
Through March 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 16 arrests, against 9 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Custer County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Custer 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 4 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 8 beds, and it ran at 50 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 Custer County Sheriff's Office at custercountysheriff.com/inmate-search (page title: Inmate Search | Custer County Sheriff's Office), phone 877-654-8463, 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 Idaho Department of Correction lists its inmates at idoc.idaho.gov/content/prisons/resident-client-search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Custer County
Whether someone was arrested in Custer County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Custer County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Custer County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at custercountyidaho.org/links/icourts-portal).
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 Custer 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 Custer County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 877-654-8463.
- An arrest in Challis: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Custer County District Court, through the court records page at custercountyidaho.org/links/icourts-portal.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Cities in Custer County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the four cities in Custer County: Challis. Mackay, Stanley and Clayton 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 Custer County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Custer County each year?
The Custer County Sheriff's Office reported 35 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 47 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Custer County?
Look on the custody page of the Custer County Sheriff's Office at custercountysheriff.com/inmate-search, or call 877-654-8463. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Custer County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Custer County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Custer 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 Custer County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Custer 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 Custer 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.