Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Sycamore, Illinois, in DeKalb County, has about 19,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the State's Attorney files charges, a case in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Sycamore public records, DeKalb County arrest records, Illinois arrest records and Illinois inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Sycamore
The FBI lists Sycamore with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Sycamore Police Department. It reported 301 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 DeKalb County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 341 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in DeKalb County: Northern Illinois University (campus police).
How Many Arrests Sycamore Reports
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.
- Sycamore: 301 for 2025, 271 for 2024, 258 for 2023, 308 for 2022 and 218 for 2021.
Sycamore's 301 arrests in 2025 were up 11 percent from 271 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Sycamore reported 155 arrests, against 207 in the same months of 2025.
Across DeKalb County, the nine agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,362 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Sycamore Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Sycamore 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 2023 the jail held about 120 people, up from about 100 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 140 beds, and it ran at 75 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 DeKalb County Sheriff's Office at dekalbsheriff.com (page title: DeKalb County Jail, IN Inmate Roster, Booking, Arrests, Warrants), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Illinois Department of Corrections lists its inmates at idoc.illinois.gov/offender/inmatesearch.html.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Sycamore
Whether someone was arrested in Sycamore, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Circuit Court of DeKalb County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at dekalbgastatecourt.gov); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dekalbcounty.org/departments/states-attorneys-office, phone 815-895-7164).
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 Sycamore
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 Sycamore police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at cityofsycamore.com/175/Sycamore-Police-Department (page title: Sycamore Police Department | Sycamore, IL), phone (815) 895-3435, 535 DeKalb Avenue Sycamore, IL 60178, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, 815-895-7164, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court of DeKalb County, through the court records page at dekalbgastatecourt.gov.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dekalbcounty.org (page title: Request for Public Records -- Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)).
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.
The DeKalb County guide covers every agency in the county: DeKalb County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Sycamore each year?
Sycamore reported 301 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Sycamore booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Sycamore?
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 Sycamore?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Sycamore police for its own arrests, the DeKalb 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dekalbcounty.org.
Is this the official Sycamore 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.