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.
St. Joseph County, Indiana, has about 274,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office, seven city agencies and three 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 Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the St. Joseph 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: St. Joseph County public records, Indiana arrest records, Indiana inmate search and Indiana criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in St. Joseph County
The St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for St. Joseph County. It reported 589 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists seven cities in St. Joseph County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- South Bend, 103,713 residents: 2,766 arrests reported for 2023.
- Mishawaka, 51,020 residents: 904 arrests reported for 2025.
- Osceola, 2,600 residents: 7 arrests reported for 2025.
- Walkerton, 2,098 residents: 32 arrests reported for 2025.
- New Carlisle, 1,913 residents: 48 arrests reported for 2023.
- North Liberty, 1,632 residents.
- Roseland, 853 residents: 50 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 St. Joseph County: Indiana University at South Bend and the University of Notre Dame (campus police); the St. Joseph County Airport Authority (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in St. Joseph 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.
- Mishawaka: 904 for 2025, 1,515 for 2024, 925 for 2023 and 822 for 2022.
- St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office: 589 for 2025, 601 for 2024, 679 for 2023, 798 for 2022, 674 for 2021 and 676 for 2020.
- Roseland: 50 for 2025, 46 for 2022 and 27 for 2021; 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Walkerton: 32 for 2025, 33 for 2024, 36 for 2022, 51 for 2021 and 62 for 2020; 2023 is missing months.
- Osceola: 7 for 2025, 3 for 2023, 8 for 2022, 5 for 2021 and 6 for 2020; 2024 is missing months.
- South Bend: 2,766 for 2023, 1,375 for 2022, 1,810 for 2020 and 2,248 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- New Carlisle: 48 for 2023 and 17 for 2022.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,582 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 621 in 2025 against 634 in 2024, down 2.1 percent.
Through July 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 908 arrests, against 861 in the same months of 2025.
South Bend reported only part of 2025 (8 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in St. Joseph County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in St. Joseph 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 670 people, up from about 630 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023, the last year with a capacity figure, was 829 beds, and it ran at 87 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 St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office at sjcpd.org/inmate-search (page title: Inmate Search | St. Joseph County Police Department), phone 574-235-9611, 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 St. Joseph County
Whether someone was arrested in St. Joseph County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the St. Joseph Circuit and Superior Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at in.gov/courts/local/st-joseph-county).
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 St. Joseph 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 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 St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 574-235-9611.
- An arrest in South Bend, Mishawaka, Osceola, Walkerton, New Carlisle, North Liberty 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 Indiana University at South Bend, the St. Joseph County Airport Authority or the University of Notre Dame: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the St. Joseph Circuit and Superior Courts, through the court records page at in.gov/courts/local/st-joseph-county.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in St. Joseph County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the nine cities in St. Joseph County: South Bend, Mishawaka, Osceola, Walkerton, New Carlisle, North Liberty and Roseland. Lakeville and Indian Village 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 St. Joseph Circuit and Superior Courts.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in St. Joseph County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- South Bend (103,713)
- Mishawaka (51,020)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in St. Joseph County each year?
Mishawaka reported 904 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,582 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in St. Joseph County?
Look on the custody page of the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office at sjcpd.org/inmate-search, or call 574-235-9611. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in St. Joseph County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph 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.