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.
Cedar County, Nebraska, has about 8,300 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Cedar County Sheriff's Office, two city agencies and one state 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 County Attorney files charges, a case in the Cedar 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: Cedar County public records, Nebraska arrest records, Nebraska inmate search and Nebraska criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Cedar County
The Cedar County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Cedar County. It reported 50 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside two 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:
- Laurel, 946 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Randolph, 881 residents: 7 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 one more agency in Cedar County: the State Patrol in Cedar County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Cedar 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.
- Cedar County Sheriff's Office: 50 for 2025, 49 for 2024, 51 for 2023, 97 for 2022, 83 for 2021 and 66 for 2020.
- Randolph: 7 for 2025.
- Laurel: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024 and 0 for 2022; 2023 is missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 57 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 50 in 2025 against 49 in 2024, up 2 percent.
Through July 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 49 arrests, against 26 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Cedar County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Cedar 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 2019 the jail held about 7 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 20 beds, and it ran at 35 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Cedar County Sheriff's Office at cedarcountyne.gov/sheriff-office (page title: Sheriff Office | Cedar County), phone 402-254-6884, 68739 Location 101 S. Broadway Hartington, NE 68739, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, whose inmate locator is at dcs-inmatesearch.ne.gov/Corrections/COR_input.jsp.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Cedar County
An arrest in Cedar County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Cedar County District Court, kept by the Clerk of the District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at cedarcountyne.gov/attorney-county, phone 402-254-7229).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at nebraskajudicial.gov/courts/cedar-county-court (page title: Cedar County Court | Nebraska Judicial Branch), phone 402-254-7441, belongs to a lower court, not to the Cedar County District Court.
Statewide, Nebraska Trial Court Case Search is the Nebraska Judicial Branch's statewide case search, with a fee per search.
Nebraska is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Patrol sells name-based criminal history checks to anyone online, through the Nebraska State Patrol. 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 Cedar 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 Nebraska Public Records Statutes the agency must answer within 4 business days, and it may charge copying, and staff time after the first four hours.
- An arrest by the Cedar County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 402-254-6884.
- An arrest in Laurel or Randolph: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the State Patrol in Cedar County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 402-254-7229, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Cedar County District Court it is kept by the Clerk of the District Court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at nebraskajudicial.gov, phone 402-254-7441, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at cedarcountyne.gov (page title: Freedom of Information Request | Cedar County).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Cedar County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the ten cities in Cedar County: Laurel and Randolph. Hartington, Coleridge, Wynot, Fordyce, Belden, St. Helena, Magnet and Obert 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 Cedar County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Cedar County each year?
The Cedar County Sheriff's Office reported 50 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 57 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Cedar County?
Ask the Cedar County Sheriff's Office at 402-254-6884; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at cedarcountyne.gov/sheriff-office.
Where are people arrested in Cedar County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Cedar County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Cedar County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Nebraska State Patrol: the Patrol sells name-based criminal history checks to anyone online. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Nebraska Public Records Statutes.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Cedar County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Cedar County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Nebraska Public Records Statutes the answer is due within 4 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at cedarcountyne.gov.
Is this the official Cedar 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.