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 30, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Lancaster County, Nebraska, has about 333,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and three campus, state or other 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 County Attorney files charges, a case in the Lancaster 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: Lancaster County public records, Nebraska arrest records, Nebraska inmate search and Nebraska criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lancaster County
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lancaster County. It reported 564 arrests for 2025.
One city in Lancaster County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Lincoln, 300,619 residents: 12,335 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 these agencies in Lancaster County: the Nebraska State Fire Marshal (state agency); the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (campus police); the State Patrol in Lancaster County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lancaster 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.
- Lincoln: 12,335 for 2025, 12,025 for 2024, 11,347 for 2023, 10,178 for 2022, 9,649 for 2021 and 16,421 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Lancaster County Sheriff's Office: 564 for 2025, 641 for 2024, 731 for 2023, 645 for 2022, 520 for 2021 and 1,444 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 12,899 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 12,899 in 2025 against 12,666 in 2024, up 1.8 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lancaster County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Lancaster 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 2023 the jail held about 710 people, up from about 630 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 786 beds, and it ran at 90 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services lists its inmates at dcs-inmatesearch.ne.gov/Corrections/COR_input.jsp.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Lancaster County
Whether someone was arrested in Lancaster County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Lancaster County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at lancaster.ne.gov/926/Courts, phone 402.441.7328); the County Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at lancaster.ne.gov/179/County-Attorney, phone 402-441-7321).
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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Lincoln: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by the Nebraska State Fire Marshal, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln or the State Patrol in Lancaster County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 402-441-7321, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Lancaster County District Court, through the court records page at lancaster.ne.gov/926/Courts, phone 402.441.7328.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lancaster.ne.gov/1000/Records-Requests (page title: Public Records Requests | Lancaster County, NE).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Lancaster County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the 13 cities in Lancaster County: Lincoln. Waverly, Hickman, Bennet, Firth, Malcolm, Hallam, Panama, Roca, Denton, Raymond, Sprague and Davey 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 Lancaster County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Lancaster County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Lincoln (300,619)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lancaster County each year?
Lincoln reported 12,335 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 12,899 between them.
Where are people arrested in Lancaster County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lancaster 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 Lancaster County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lancaster 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 lancaster.ne.gov/1000/Records-Requests.
Is this the official Lancaster 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.