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 23, 2026.
Peoria County, Illinois, has about 180,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Peoria County Sheriff's Office, six city agencies and two 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 Peoria 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: Peoria County public records, Illinois arrest records, Illinois inmate search and Illinois criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Peoria County
The Peoria County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Peoria County. It reported 981 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside six 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:
- Peoria, 111,696 residents: 5,446 arrests reported for 2025.
- Chillicothe, 6,052 residents: 256 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bartonville, 5,836 residents: 279 arrests reported for 2025.
- Peoria Heights, 5,802 residents: 533 arrests reported for 2024.
- Elmwood, 2,041 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2020.
- Glasford, 849 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2019.
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 Peoria County: the Peoria Park District (other); Bradley University (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Peoria 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.
- Peoria: 5,446 for 2025, 4,993 for 2024, 4,194 for 2023 and 3,715 for 2022.
- Peoria County Sheriff's Office: 981 for 2025, 781 for 2024, 922 for 2023, 841 for 2022 and 690 for 2021.
- Bartonville: 279 for 2025, 286 for 2024, 347 for 2023, 357 for 2022 and 358 for 2021.
- Chillicothe: 256 for 2025, 235 for 2024, 336 for 2023, 262 for 2022 and 301 for 2021.
- Peoria Heights: 533 for 2024, 410 for 2023, 362 for 2022 and 274 for 2021.
- Glasford: 0 for 2019.
- Elmwood: 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 6,962 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 6,962 in 2025 against 6,295 in 2024, up 11 percent.
Peoria Heights reported only part of 2025 (3 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Peoria County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Peoria 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 260 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 492 beds, and it ran at 53 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 Peoria County Sheriff's Office at peoriacounty.gov/566/Corrections (page title: Corrections | Peoria County, IL), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
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 Peoria County
For Peoria County the place to look is the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at peoriacounty.gov/1346/State-Attorneys-Office).
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 Peoria 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 Peoria County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Peoria, Chillicothe, Bartonville, Peoria Heights, Elmwood or Glasford: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Peoria Park District or Bradley University: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at peoriacounty.gov/789/FOIA-Request (page title: FOIA Request | Peoria County, IL).
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.
Cities in Peoria County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the 15 cities in Peoria County: Peoria, Chillicothe, Bartonville, Peoria Heights, Elmwood and Glasford. West Peoria, Bellevue, Princeville, Dunlap, Hanna City, Brimfield, Norwood, Kingston Mines and Mapleton 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 Peoria County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Peoria County each year?
Peoria reported 5,446 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 6,962 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Peoria County?
Ask the Peoria County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at peoriacounty.gov/566/Corrections.
Where are people arrested in Peoria County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Peoria County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Peoria 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 Peoria County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Peoria 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at peoriacounty.gov/789/FOIA-Request.
Is this the official Peoria 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.