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.
Porter County, Indiana, has about 176,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Porter County Sheriff's Office and eight city 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Porter Circuit and Superior Courts. 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: Porter County public records, Indiana arrest records, Indiana inmate search and Indiana criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Porter County
The Porter County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Porter County. It reported 765 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside eight 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:
- Portage, 38,576 residents: 1,410 arrests reported for 2025.
- Valparaiso, 35,065 residents: 1,138 arrests reported for 2025.
- Chesterton, 14,655 residents: 307 arrests reported for 2025.
- Porter, 5,190 residents: 81 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hebron, 3,746 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
- Burns Harbor, 2,147 residents.
- Kouts, 2,058 residents.
- Ogden Dunes, 1,172 residents: 21 arrests reported for 2020.
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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Porter 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.
- Portage: 1,410 for 2025, 1,155 for 2024, 1,111 for 2023, 1,130 for 2022, 1,245 for 2021 and 737 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Hebron: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Valparaiso: 1,138 for 2025, 1,558 for 2024, 1,395 for 2023, 1,062 for 2022 and 1,198 for 2021.
- Porter County Sheriff's Office: 765 for 2025, 1,046 for 2024, 759 for 2023, 672 for 2022, 837 for 2021 and 1,217 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Chesterton: 307 for 2025, 141 for 2023, 169 for 2022, 122 for 2020 and 118 for 2019; 2021 and 2024 are missing months.
- Porter: 81 for 2025, 98 for 2024, 77 for 2022, 77 for 2021 and 94 for 2020; 2023 is missing months.
- Ogden Dunes: 21 for 2020.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,853 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 4,546 in 2025 against 5,009 in 2024, down 9.2 percent.
Through March 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,103 arrests, against 1,322 in the same months of 2025.
Burns Harbor, Ogden Dunes and Kouts reported only part of 2025 (3 months, 1 month and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Porter County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Porter 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 370 people, up from about 330 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 449 beds, and it ran at 82 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 Porter County Sheriff's Office at portercountysheriff.com/whosinjail (page title: Who's In Jail | Porter County Sheriff’s Office IN), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 Indiana Department of Correction lists its inmates at offenderlocator.idoc.in.gov/idoc-ofs-1.0.2/ofs.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Porter County
An arrest in Porter County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Porter County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Porter Circuit and Superior Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at portercountyin.gov/1019/Free-Access-To-Adult-Court-Case-Records); the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at portercountyin.gov/200/Prosecutor, phone 219-465-3415).
Statewide, mycase.IN.gov is the Indiana courts' free statewide case search.
Indiana is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Limited Criminal History search is open to anyone online, through the Indiana 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 Porter 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 Indiana Access to Public Records Act the agency must answer within 24 hours for a request made in person and 7 days for one sent by mail or email, and it may charge a copy fee set by the agency, within statutory limits.
- An arrest by the Porter County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Portage, Valparaiso, Chesterton, Porter, Hebron, Burns Harbor 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.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 219-465-3415, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Porter Circuit and Superior Courts, through the court records page at portercountyin.gov.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Porter County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for eight of the 11 cities in Porter County: Portage, Valparaiso, Chesterton, Porter, Hebron, Burns Harbor, Kouts and Ogden Dunes. Beverly Shores, Town of Pines and Dune Acres 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 Porter Circuit and Superior Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Porter County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Portage (38,576)
- Valparaiso (35,065)
- Chesterton (14,655)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Porter County each year?
Portage reported 1,410 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 4,853 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Porter County?
Look on the custody page of the Porter County Sheriff's Office at portercountysheriff.com/whosinjail. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Porter County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Porter County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Porter County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Indiana State Police: the Limited Criminal History search is open to anyone online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Porter County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Porter County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act the answer is due within 24 hours for a request made in person and 7 days for one sent by mail or email.
Is this the official Porter 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.