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.
Brown County, South Dakota, has about 37,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Brown County Sheriff's Office and two 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 Circuit Court for Brown County. 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: Brown County public records, South Dakota arrest records, South Dakota inmate search and South Dakota criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Brown County
The Brown County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Brown County. It reported 453 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Brown County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Aberdeen, 27,919 residents: 1,395 arrests reported for 2025.
- Groton, 1,343 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2020.
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 Brown 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.
- Aberdeen: 1,395 for 2025, 1,471 for 2024, 1,457 for 2023, 1,766 for 2021, 1,262 for 2020 and 1,598 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- Brown County Sheriff's Office: 453 for 2025, 284 for 2022, 269 for 2021 and 234 for 2019; 2020, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Groton: 2 for 2020 and 4 for 2019.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,848 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,395 in 2025 against 1,471 in 2024, down 5.2 percent.
Through May 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 886 arrests, against 655 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Brown County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Brown 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 2019 the jail held about 58 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 40 beds, and it ran at 146 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 Brown County Sheriff's Office at brown.sd.us/department/jail (page title: Jail | Brown County), phone 800.896.3201, 22 Court St. Suite 1 Aberdeen, SD 57401, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the South Dakota Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at doc.sd.gov/adult-corrections/offender-locator.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Brown County
For Brown County the place to look is the case index of the Circuit Court for Brown County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at ujs.sd.gov/cases-and-records).
Statewide, UJS Public Access Record Search is the South Dakota courts' statewide search, with a fee per name.
South Dakota does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court's own case index is the public record of an arrest that led to a charge.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Brown 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 South Dakota Open Records Law the agency must answer within 10 business days, and it may charge copying and staff time.
- An arrest by the Brown County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 800.896.3201.
- An arrest in Aberdeen or Groton: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court for Brown County, through the court records page at ujs.sd.gov/cases-and-records.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Cities in Brown County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the ten cities in Brown County: Aberdeen and Groton. Warner, Frederick, Hecla, Columbia, Claremont, Westport, Stratford and Verdon 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 Circuit Court for Brown County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Brown County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Aberdeen (27,919)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Brown County each year?
Aberdeen reported 1,395 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,848 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Brown County?
Ask the Brown County Sheriff's Office at 800.896.3201; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at brown.sd.us/department/jail.
Where are people arrested in Brown County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Brown County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Brown County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Circuit Court for Brown County are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the South Dakota Open Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Brown County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Brown County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the South Dakota Open Records Law the answer is due within 10 business days.
Is this the official Brown 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.