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 4, 2026.
Phelps County, Nebraska, has about 9,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Phelps 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 Phelps 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: Phelps County public records, Nebraska arrest records, Nebraska inmate search and Nebraska criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Phelps County
The Phelps County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Phelps County. It reported 13 arrests for 2025.
One city in Phelps County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Holdrege, 5,556 residents: 53 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 Phelps County: the State Patrol in Phelps County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Phelps 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.
- Holdrege: 53 for 2025, 54 for 2022, 50 for 2021, 32 for 2020 and 52 for 2019; 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Phelps County Sheriff's Office: 13 for 2025, 15 for 2024, 4 for 2021, 1 for 2020 and 6 for 2019; 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 66 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 13 in 2025 against 15 in 2024.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 49 arrests, against 33 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Phelps County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Phelps 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 45 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 51 beds, and it ran at 88 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 Phelps County Sheriff's Office at phelpscountyso.org (page title: Phelps County Sheriff), phone 308-995-5692, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 2026.
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 Phelps County
An arrest in Phelps County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Phelps 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 phelpscounty.ne.gov/webpages/attorney/attorney.html, phone 308-995-2293).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at nebraskajudicial.gov/courts/phelps-county-court (page title: Phelps County Court | Nebraska Judicial Branch), phone 308-995-6561, belongs to a lower court, not to the Phelps 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 Phelps 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 Phelps County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 308-995-5692.
- An arrest in Holdrege: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the State Patrol in Phelps County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the County Attorney, 308-995-2293, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Phelps 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 308-995-6561, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Phelps County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the five cities in Phelps County: Holdrege. Bertrand, Loomis, Funk and Atlanta 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 Phelps County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Phelps County each year?
Holdrege reported 53 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 66 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Phelps County?
Ask the Phelps County Sheriff's Office at 308-995-5692; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at phelpscountyso.org.
Where are people arrested in Phelps County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Phelps County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Phelps 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 Phelps County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Phelps 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 Phelps 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.