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 on September 23, 2026.

About this guide

Will County, Illinois, has about 709,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Will County Sheriff's Office, 24 city agencies and six 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 Will 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: Will County public records, Illinois arrest records, Illinois inmate search and Illinois criminal records.

Who Makes Arrests in Will County

The Will County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Will County. It reported 978 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside 24 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:

  • Joliet, 151,837 residents: 1,975 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Bolingbrook, 74,756 residents: 555 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Plainfield, 48,881 residents: 429 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Romeoville, 41,177 residents: 497 arrests reported for 2025.
  • New Lenox, 28,480 residents: 349 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Lockport, 26,915 residents: 293 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Homer Glen, 24,852 residents: 56 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Frankfort, 21,160 residents: 160 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Crest Hill, 20,223 residents: 199 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Mokena, 19,915 residents: 242 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Shorewood, 18,522 residents: 183 arrests reported for 2025.
  • Channahon, 14,392 residents: 125 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 Orland Park Police Department, the Tinley Park Police Department, the Park Forest Police Department and seven more are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Will County, so their arrests are not broken out for Will County here.

The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Will County: Governors State University, Joliet Junior College and Lewis University (campus police); Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway, Will County Forest Preserve and the Lockport Township Park District (other).

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Will 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.

  • Joliet: 1,975 for 2025, 1,407 for 2024, 1,396 for 2023 and 2,111 for 2022.
  • Will County Sheriff's Office: 978 for 2025, 931 for 2024, 921 for 2023 and 858 for 2022.
  • Bolingbrook: 555 for 2025, 498 for 2024, 702 for 2023 and 775 for 2022.
  • Romeoville: 497 for 2025, 532 for 2024, 521 for 2023 and 519 for 2022.
  • Plainfield: 429 for 2025, 381 for 2024, 387 for 2023 and 364 for 2022.
  • New Lenox: 349 for 2025, 367 for 2024, 331 for 2023 and 317 for 2022.
  • Lockport: 293 for 2025, 315 for 2024, 333 for 2023 and 349 for 2022.
  • Mokena: 242 for 2025, 196 for 2024, 188 for 2023 and 115 for 2022.
  • Crest Hill: 199 for 2025, 152 for 2024, 110 for 2023 and 130 for 2022.
  • Crete: 195 for 2025, 203 for 2024, 133 for 2023 and 91 for 2022.
  • Shorewood: 183 for 2025, 186 for 2024, 144 for 2023 and 181 for 2022.
  • Frankfort: 160 for 2025, 100 for 2024 and 146 for 2022; 2023 is missing months.

Together, the 24 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 7,010 arrests that year. The 23 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,035 in 2025 against 4,723 in 2024, up 6.6 percent.

Through August 2026, the 20 agencies with every month so far on file reported 4,443 arrests, against 4,401 in the same months of 2025.

Manhattan reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Will County Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Will 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 2021 the jail held about 600 people, down from about 690 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 909 beds, and it ran at 76 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 Will County Sheriff's Office at willcosheriff.org/component/search/?searchword=Facility (page title: Search | WC Sheriff's Office), phone (815) 727-8575, 16911 W. Laraway Rd, Suite 101, Joliet, IL 60433, 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 Will County

An arrest in Will County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Circuit Court of Will County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at circuitclerkofwillcounty.com/public-access); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at willcountysao.com).

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 Will 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 Will County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (815) 727-8575.
  • An arrest in Joliet, Bolingbrook, Plainfield, Romeoville, New Lenox, Lockport 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 Governors State University, Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway or Will County Forest Preserve: 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.
  • The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court of Will County, through the court records page at circuitclerkofwillcounty.com/public-access.
  • Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at willcountyclerk.gov (page title: Will County, IL Elections).
  • Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.

Cities in Will County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 24 of the 25 cities in Will County: the twelve named above and Manhattan, Steger, Crete, University Park, Braidwood, Wilmington, Monee, Beecher, Peotone, Elwood, Rockdale and Godley. Symerton has 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 Will County.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Will 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 Will County each year?

Joliet reported 1,975 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 24 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 7,010 between them.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Will County?

Ask the Will County Sheriff's Office at (815) 727-8575; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at willcosheriff.org.

Where are people arrested in Will County booked?

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

Are arrest records public in Will 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 Will County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Will 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 willcountyclerk.gov.

Is this the official Will 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.