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 24, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Stark County, North Dakota, has about 34,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Stark County Sheriff's Office and one city agency. 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 Stark County District Court. 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: Stark County public records, North Dakota arrest records, North Dakota inmate search and North Dakota criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Stark County
The Stark County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Stark County. It reported 188 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Stark County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Dickinson, 25,695 residents: 1,588 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Stark 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.
- Dickinson: 1,588 for 2025, 1,334 for 2024, 1,301 for 2023, 1,254 for 2022, 1,298 for 2021 and 1,493 for 2020.
- Stark County Sheriff's Office: 188 for 2025, 134 for 2024, 142 for 2023, 168 for 2022, 136 for 2021 and 187 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,776 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,776 in 2025 against 1,468 in 2024, up 21 percent.
Through July 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 929 arrests, against 1,002 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Stark County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Stark 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 2023 the jail held about 59 people, up from about 39 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 91 beds, and it ran at 64 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 Stark County Sheriff's Office at vintoncountysheriff.com/stark-county (page title: Stark County Sheriff, OH, Jail Inmate Search, Recent Arrests), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation lists its inmates at docr.nd.gov/resident-lookup.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Stark County
An arrest in Stark County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Stark County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; North Dakota Courts Records Inquiry, the North Dakota courts' free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at starkcountynd.gov/states-attorney).
North Dakota is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: name-based criminal history records are open to anyone who asks, through the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal 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 Stark 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 North Dakota Open Records Law the agency must answer within a reasonable time, and it may charge copying, and staff time after the first hour.
- An arrest by the Stark County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Dickinson: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- 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 starkcountynd.gov/index.asp (page title: Open Records Request | Stark County, ND Website).
- Your own statewide record: a request to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Cities in Stark County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the six cities in Stark County: Dickinson. Belfield, Richardton, South Heart, Gladstone and Taylor 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 Stark County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Stark County each year?
Dickinson reported 1,588 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,776 between them.
Where are people arrested in Stark County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Stark County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Stark County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation: name-based criminal history records are open to anyone who asks. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the North Dakota Open Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Stark County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Stark County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the North Dakota Open Records Law the answer is due within a reasonable time; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at starkcountynd.gov/index.asp.
Is this the official Stark 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.