Normal Arrest Records: Who Makes Arrests, Where People Are Booked and How to Get the Report

Who Makes Arrests in Normal

The FBI lists Normal with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Normal Police Department. It reported 1,192 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.

Outside the city, the McLean County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 606 arrests for 2025.

The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in McLean County: Illinois State University (campus police).

How Many Arrests Normal Reports

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.

• Normal: 1,192 for 2025, 1,161 for 2024, 1,147 for 2023, 982 for 2022 and 941 for 2021.

Normal's 1,192 arrests in 2025 were up 2.7 percent from 1,161 in 2024.

Through July 2026, Normal reported 841 arrests, against 701 in the same months of 2025.

Across McLean County, the ten agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,777 arrests between them.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Normal Are Held

A person kept in custody after an arrest in Normal is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.

On an average day in 2024 the jail held about 200 people, down from about 230 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 436 beds, and it ran at 52 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 McLean County Sheriff's Office at mcleancountyil.gov/95/Sheriff (page title: Sheriff | McLean County, IL), phone (309) 888-5034, 104 W Front Street Bloomington, IL 61701, Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 2026.

A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Illinois Department of Corrections lists its inmates at idoc.illinois.gov/offender/inmatesearch.html.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Normal

Whether someone was arrested in Normal, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Circuit Court of McLean County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at mcleancountyil.gov/137/Court-Records-Search); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at mcleancountyil.gov/m/directory/department?did=28, phone (309) 888-5400).

Illinois is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: conviction information is public under the Uniform Conviction Information Act, through the Illinois State Police. 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 Normal

An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act the agency must answer within 5 business days, with one 5-day extension, and it may charge copying only after the first 50 pages.

• An arrest by the Normal police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at normalil.gov/473/Police-Report (page title: Police Report | Normal, IL), phone (309) 454-9528, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
• An arrest by the McLean County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (309) 888-5034.
• A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, (309) 888-5400, handles discovery for pending cases.
• The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court of McLean County, through the court records page at mcleancountyil.gov/137/Court-Records-Search.
• Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.

The McLean County guide covers every agency in the county: McLean County arrest records.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Normal each year?

Normal reported 1,192 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Normal?

Ask the McLean County Sheriff's Office at (309) 888-5034; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at mcleancountyil.gov/95/Sheriff.

Where are people arrested in Normal booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the McLean County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Normal?

The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Illinois State Police: conviction information is public under the Uniform Conviction Information Act. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Normal?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Normal police for its own arrests, the McLean County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act the answer is due within 5 business days, with one 5-day extension.

Is this the official Normal website?

No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.