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 September 30, 2026.
Dawes County, Nebraska, has about 8,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Dawes County Sheriff's Office, one city agency 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 Dawes 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: Dawes County public records, Nebraska arrest records, Nebraska inmate search and Nebraska criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Dawes County
The Dawes County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Dawes County. It reported 19 arrests for 2025.
One city in Dawes County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Chadron, 5,094 residents: 113 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 Dawes County: the State Patrol in Dawes County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Dawes 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.
- Chadron: 113 for 2025, 92 for 2024, 117 for 2023, 148 for 2021 and 261 for 2019; 2020 and 2022 are missing months.
- Dawes County Sheriff's Office: 19 for 2025, 24 for 2024, 23 for 2023, 22 for 2021 and 16 for 2020; 2022 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 132 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 132 in 2025 against 116 in 2024, up 14 percent.
Through June 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 43 arrests, against 60 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Dawes County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Dawes 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 15 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 20 beds, and it ran at 75 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Dawes County
An arrest in Dawes County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Dawes 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 dawescounty.ne.gov/what-we-do/court-system/county-attorney.html, phone (308) 432-3900).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at nebraskajudicial.gov/courts/dawes-county-court (page title: Dawes County Court | Nebraska Judicial Branch), phone 308-432-0116, belongs to a lower court, not to the Dawes 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 Dawes 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 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 Dawes County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Chadron: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the State Patrol in Dawes County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, (308) 432-3900, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Dawes 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 308-432-0116, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Dawes County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the three cities in Dawes County: Chadron. Crawford and Whitney 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 Dawes County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Dawes County each year?
Chadron reported 113 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 132 between them.
Where are people arrested in Dawes County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Dawes County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Dawes 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 Dawes County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Dawes 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.
Is this the official Dawes 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.