SearchSystems Editorial

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 October 2, 2026.

About this guide

Lake County, Illinois, has about 719,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lake County Sheriff's Office, 33 city agencies and four campus, state or other 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 Lake 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: Lake County public records, Illinois arrest records, Illinois inmate search and Illinois criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Lake County

The Lake County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lake County. It reported 656 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside 33 of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:

  • Waukegan, 88,570 residents: 1,366 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Buffalo Grove, 43,072 residents: 290 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Mundelein, 32,641 residents: 668 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Highland Park, 30,794 residents: 312 arrests reported for 2025.
  • North Chicago, 30,639 residents: 81 arrests reported for 2023.
  • Gurnee, 30,546 residents: 529 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Round Lake Beach, 27,091 residents: 456 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Vernon Hills, 27,002 residents: 334 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Zion, 24,583 residents: 554 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Grayslake, 21,262 residents: 126 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Libertyville, 20,643 residents: 228 arrests reported for 2023.
  • Lake Zurich, 19,960 residents: 338 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 Barrington Police Department, the Island Lake Police Department, the Fox River Grove Police Department and one more are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Lake County, so their arrests are not broken out for Lake County here.

The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Lake County: the College of Lake County (campus police); Lake County Forest Preserve, the Round Lake Park District and the Zion Park District (other).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in 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.

  • Waukegan: 1,366 for 2025, 801 for 2024 and 1,021 for 2023.
  • Mundelein: 668 for 2025, 668 for 2024, 602 for 2023, 562 for 2022 and 613 for 2021.
  • Lake County Sheriff's Office: 656 for 2025.
  • Zion: 554 for 2025, 357 for 2024, 326 for 2023 and 305 for 2022.
  • Gurnee: 529 for 2025, 470 for 2024, 568 for 2023 and 363 for 2022.
  • Round Lake Beach: 456 for 2025, 315 for 2024, 377 for 2023 and 248 for 2022.
  • Lake Zurich: 338 for 2025, 370 for 2024, 323 for 2023, 237 for 2022 and 189 for 2021.
  • Vernon Hills: 334 for 2025, 392 for 2024 and 226 for 2023.
  • Fox Lake: 313 for 2025, 338 for 2024, 442 for 2023, 477 for 2022 and 506 for 2021.
  • Highland Park: 312 for 2025, 269 for 2024, 167 for 2022 and 192 for 2021; 2023 is missing months.
  • Buffalo Grove: 290 for 2025, 231 for 2024, 195 for 2023 and 210 for 2022.
  • Round Lake: 269 for 2025, 271 for 2024 and 238 for 2023.

Together, the 31 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 7,816 arrests that year. The 26 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 4,998 in 2025 against 4,786 in 2024, up 4.4 percent.

Through July 2026, the 28 agencies with every month so far on file reported 4,142 arrests, against 4,099 in the same months of 2025.

North Chicago and Libertyville reported only part of 2025 (3 months and 8 months) and are left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Lake County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in 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.

On an average day in 2024 the jail held about 510 people, down from about 630 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 740 beds, and it ran at 85 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 Lake County Sheriff's Office at lakecountyil.gov/2031/Inmate-Information (page title: Inmate Information | Lake County, IL), 29 S Martin Luther King Jr Avenue, Waukegan, IL 60085, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 429), 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 person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Illinois Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at idoc.illinois.gov/offender/inmatesearch.html.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Lake County

Whether someone was arrested in Lake County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Lake County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Circuit Court of Lake County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at ilsos.gov/departments/archives/databases/lake.html, phone 815-753-1807).

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 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 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 Lake County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
  • An arrest in Waukegan, Buffalo Grove, Mundelein, Highland Park, North Chicago, Gurnee or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
  • An arrest by the College of Lake County, Lake County Forest Preserve or the Round Lake Park District: the records office of the agency involved.
  • The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court of Lake County, through the court records page at ilsos.gov, phone 815-753-1807.
  • Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.

Cities in Lake County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 33 of the 46 cities in Lake County: the twelve named above and Lake Forest, Deerfield, Round Lake, Antioch, Lindenhurst, Wauconda, Fox Lake, Hawthorn Woods, Lake Villa, Lincolnshire, Park City, Round Lake Park, Winthrop Harbor, Lakemoor, Lake Bluff, Highwood, Kildeer, Riverwoods, Round Lake Heights, Bannockburn and Tower Lakes. Beach Park, Long Grove, Volo, Lake Barrington, Green Oaks, Deer Park, Hainesville, Wadsworth, North Barrington, Third Lake, Mettawa, Indian Creek and one 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 Lake County.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Lake County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Lake County each year?

Waukegan reported 1,366 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 31 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 7,816 between them.

Where are people arrested in Lake County booked?

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

Are arrest records public in Lake 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 Lake County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Lake 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 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.