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 27, 2026.
Lincoln County, South Dakota, has about 75,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and four 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 Lincoln 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: Lincoln County public records, South Dakota arrest records, South Dakota inmate search and South Dakota criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lincoln County
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lincoln County. It reported 536 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Lincoln County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Tea, 7,699 residents: 238 arrests reported for 2025.
- Canton, 2,974 residents: 51 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lennox, 2,539 residents: 103 arrests reported for 2025.
- Worthing, 914 residents: 1,152 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 Beresford Police Department and the Sioux Falls Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Lincoln County, so their arrests are not broken out for Lincoln County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lincoln 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.
- Worthing: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Lincoln County Sheriff's Office: 536 for 2025, 471 for 2024, 324 for 2021, 278 for 2020 and 413 for 2019; 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Tea: 238 for 2025, 215 for 2024, 180 for 2023, 112 for 2022, 97 for 2021 and 107 for 2020.
- Lennox: 103 for 2025, 78 for 2024, 79 for 2023, 60 for 2020 and 22 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Canton: 51 for 2025, 26 for 2024, 58 for 2023, 49 for 2022, 90 for 2021 and 65 for 2020.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,080 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,080 in 2025 against 1,942 in 2024, up 7.1 percent.
Through March 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 429 arrests, against 503 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lincoln County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Lincoln 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 2022 the jail held about 100 people, up from about 93 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 134 beds, and it ran at 70 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at p2c.lincolnsheriff.org/jailinmates.aspx (page title: Lincoln County Sheriffs Office P2C), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 27, 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 Lincoln County
An arrest in Lincoln County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Circuit Court for Lincoln 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); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at lincolncountysd.gov/199/States-Attorney, phone (605) 764-5732).
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 Lincoln 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 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Tea, Canton, Lennox or Worthing: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, (605) 764-5732, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court for Lincoln County, through the court records page at ujs.sd.gov/cases-and-records.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lincolncountysd.justfoia.com (page title: Lincoln County, SD Public Portal | JustFOIA).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Cities in Lincoln County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the seven cities in Lincoln County: Tea, Canton, Lennox and Worthing. Harrisburg, Hudson and Fairview 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 Lincoln County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lincoln County each year?
Worthing reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,080 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Lincoln County?
Ask the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at p2c.lincolnsheriff.org/jailinmates.aspx.
Where are people arrested in Lincoln County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lincoln County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Circuit Court for Lincoln 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 Lincoln County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lincoln 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lincolncountysd.justfoia.com.
Is this the official Lincoln 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.