Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 26, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Winfield, Kansas, in Cowley County, has about 12,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the County Attorney files charges, a case in the Cowley County District Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Winfield public records, Cowley County arrest records, Kansas arrest records and Kansas inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Winfield
The FBI lists Winfield with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Winfield Police Department. It reported 205 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Cowley County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 94 arrests for 2025.
How Many Arrests Winfield Reports
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.
- Winfield: 205 for 2025, 196 for 2024, 225 for 2023, 219 for 2022, 299 for 2021 and 276 for 2020.
Winfield's 205 arrests in 2025 were up 4.6 percent from 196 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Winfield reported 76 arrests, against 149 in the same months of 2025.
Across Cowley County, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 684 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Winfield Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Winfield 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 97 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 218 beds, and it ran at 44 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 Cowley County Sheriff's Office at cowleycountyks.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=41 (page title: Archive Center, Sheriff | Inmate Rosters), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 2, 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 person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Kansas Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at doc.ks.gov/@@search?SearchableText=inmate+search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Winfield
An arrest in Winfield can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Cowley County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; Kansas District Court Public Access Portal, the Kansas courts' statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at cowleycountyks.gov/192/Attorney, phone 620-221-5823).
Kansas is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: anyone can order a name-based criminal history record check online, through the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. 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 Winfield
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 Kansas Open Records Act the agency must answer within 3 business days, and it may charge staff time and copying.
- An arrest by the Winfield police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at courtrecord.net/winfield-ks-police-departments (page title: Winfield Police Records for Free (Winfield, KS)), phone 620-221-5545, 812 Millington Street Winfield, KS 67156, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Cowley County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 620-221-5823, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at cowleycountyks.gov/204/Open-Records (page title: Open Records | Cowley County, KS).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Cowley County guide covers every agency in the county: Cowley County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Winfield each year?
Winfield reported 205 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Winfield?
Look on the custody page of the Cowley County Sheriff's Office at cowleycountyks.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=41. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Winfield booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Cowley County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Winfield?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation: anyone can order a name-based criminal history record check online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Kansas Open Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Winfield?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Winfield police for its own arrests, the Cowley County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Kansas Open Records Act the answer is due within 3 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at cowleycountyks.gov/204/Open-Records.
Is this the official Winfield website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.