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 24, 2026.
Ward County, North Dakota, has about 68,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Ward County Sheriff's Office and five 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 State's Attorney files charges, a case in the Ward 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: Ward County public records, North Dakota arrest records, North Dakota inmate search and North Dakota criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Ward County
The Ward County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Ward County. It reported 528 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists five cities in Ward County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Minot, 47,440 residents: 930 arrests reported for 2025.
- Surrey, 1,434 residents: 6 arrests reported for 2024.
- Burlington, 1,334 residents: 8 arrests reported for 2025.
- Kenmare, 919 residents: 10 arrests reported for 2025.
- Berthold, 468 residents: 28 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Ward 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.
- Minot: 930 for 2025, 1,273 for 2024, 1,702 for 2023, 1,550 for 2022, 1,304 for 2021 and 1,487 for 2020.
- Ward County Sheriff's Office: 528 for 2025, 661 for 2024, 661 for 2023, 504 for 2022, 501 for 2021 and 577 for 2020.
- Kenmare: 10 for 2025, 15 for 2024, 22 for 2023, 7 for 2022, 4 for 2021 and 5 for 2020.
- Burlington: 8 for 2025, 20 for 2024, 40 for 2023, 38 for 2022, 7 for 2021 and 12 for 2020.
- Berthold: 28 for 2024, 8 for 2023, 35 for 2022, 33 for 2021, 53 for 2020 and 71 for 2019.
- Surrey: 6 for 2024, 23 for 2023, 33 for 2022, 7 for 2021, 11 for 2020 and 18 for 2019.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,476 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,476 in 2025 against 1,969 in 2024, down 25 percent.
Through July 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 766 arrests, against 852 in the same months of 2025.
Berthold and Surrey reported only part of 2025 (11 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Ward County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Ward 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 2021 the jail held about 130 people, up from about 110 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 286 beds, and it ran at 39 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 Ward County Sheriff's Office at co.ward.nd.us/395/Ward-County-Inmate-Locator (page title: Ward County Inmate Locator | Ward County, ND), phone 701-857-6530, 204 Front St. P.O. Box 907 Minot, ND 58702, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 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 North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation lists its inmates at docr.nd.gov/resident-lookup.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Ward County
Whether someone was arrested in Ward County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Ward 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 co.ward.nd.us/227/States-Attorney, phone 701-852-0111).
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 Ward 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 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 Ward County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 701-857-6530.
- An arrest in Minot, Surrey, Burlington, Kenmare or Berthold: 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 State's Attorney, 701-852-0111, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: a request to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Cities in Ward County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the 12 cities in Ward County: Minot, Surrey, Burlington, Kenmare and Berthold. Sawyer, Des Lacs, Makoti, Carpio, Ryder, Douglas and Donnybrook 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 Ward County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Ward County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Minot (47,440)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Ward County each year?
Minot reported 930 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,476 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Ward County?
Look on the custody page of the Ward County Sheriff's Office at co.ward.nd.us/395/Ward-County-Inmate-Locator, or call 701-857-6530. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Ward County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Ward County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Ward 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 Ward County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Ward 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.
Is this the official Ward 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.