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 between September 23, 2026 and September 30, 2026.
Champaign County, Illinois, has about 212,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Champaign County Sheriff's Office, eight city agencies and two campus agencies. 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 State's Attorney files charges, a case in the Circuit Court of Champaign 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: Champaign County public records, Illinois arrest records, Illinois inmate search and Illinois criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Champaign County
The Champaign County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Champaign County. It reported 512 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists eight cities in Champaign County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Champaign, 91,961 residents: 1,629 arrests reported for 2025.
- Urbana, 39,831 residents: 880 arrests reported for 2025.
- Rantoul, 12,268 residents: 383 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mahomet, 10,619 residents: 120 arrests reported for 2025.
- Tolono, 3,581 residents: 10 arrests reported for 2024.
- Fisher, 2,092 residents: 1 arrests reported for 2025.
- Gifford, 906 residents: 1 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ludlow, 301 residents: 1,152 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.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Champaign County: Parkland College and the University of Illinois at Urbana (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Champaign 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.
- Champaign: 1,629 for 2025, 1,243 for 2024, 1,091 for 2023, 1,650 for 2022 and 1,218 for 2021.
- Ludlow: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Urbana: 880 for 2025, 937 for 2024, 832 for 2023 and 958 for 2021; 2022 is missing months.
- Champaign County Sheriff's Office: 512 for 2025, 369 for 2024, 326 for 2023, 696 for 2022 and 563 for 2021.
- Rantoul: 383 for 2025, 296 for 2024, 302 for 2023, 489 for 2022 and 449 for 2021.
- Mahomet: 120 for 2025, 75 for 2024, 103 for 2023 and 96 for 2022.
- Gifford: 1 for 2025, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Fisher: 1 for 2025, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Tolono: 10 for 2024, 9 for 2023, 18 for 2022, 23 for 2021, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019.
Together, the eight agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,678 arrests that year. The six of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 4,676 in 2025 against 4,072 in 2024, up 15 percent.
Through August 2026, the seven agencies with every month so far on file reported 3,031 arrests, against 3,015 in the same months of 2025.
Tolono reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Champaign County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Champaign County 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 240 people, up from about 150 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2022, the last year with a capacity figure, was 295 beds, and it ran at 59 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 Champaign County Sheriff's Office at champaigncountyil.gov/sheriff/inmatelookup.php (page title: Inmate Lookup | Champaign County Illinois), 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 Illinois Department of Corrections lists its inmates at idoc.illinois.gov/offender/inmatesearch.html.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Champaign County
An arrest in Champaign County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Champaign County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Circuit Court of Champaign County, kept by the Circuit Clerk, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at champaigncountyil.gov/statesattorney/statesattorneyfoia.php, phone (217) 384-3816).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at illinoiscourts.gov/courts-directory/3/Champaign-County-Courthouse/c... (page title: Champaign County Courthouse | State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts), phone (217) 384-3707, belongs to a lower court, not to the Circuit Court of Champaign County.
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 Champaign County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 Champaign County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, Mahomet, Tolono, Fisher or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by Parkland College or the University of Illinois at Urbana: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, (217) 384-3816, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Circuit Court of Champaign County it is kept by the Circuit Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at illinoiscourts.gov, phone (217) 384-3707, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.
Cities in Champaign County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for eight of the 23 cities in Champaign County: Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, Mahomet, Tolono, Fisher, Gifford and Ludlow. Savoy, St. Joseph, Philo, Sidney, Homer, Thomasboro, Ogden, Pesotum, Sadorus, Bondville, Broadlands, Royal and three more 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 Circuit Court of Champaign County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Champaign County each year?
Champaign reported 1,629 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the eight agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 4,678 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Champaign County?
Look on the custody page of the Champaign County Sheriff's Office at champaigncountyil.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Champaign County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Champaign County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Champaign County?
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 Champaign County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Champaign County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act the answer is due within 5 business days, with one 5-day extension.
Is this the official Champaign 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.