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.
Meade County, South Dakota, has about 31,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Meade County Sheriff's Office and three 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 Meade 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: Meade County public records, South Dakota arrest records, South Dakota inmate search and South Dakota criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Meade County
The Meade County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Meade County. It reported 238 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists three cities in Meade County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Sturgis, 7,014 residents: 584 arrests reported for 2024.
- Summerset, 3,013 residents: 76 arrests reported for 2025.
- Faith, 354 residents: 17 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.
The Box Elder Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Meade County, so its arrests are not broken out for Meade County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Meade 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.
- Sturgis: 584 for 2024, 528 for 2023, 545 for 2022, 594 for 2021, 557 for 2020 and 606 for 2019.
- Meade County Sheriff's Office: 238 for 2024, 289 for 2023, 291 for 2022, 384 for 2021, 438 for 2020 and 353 for 2019.
- Summerset: 76 for 2025, 53 for 2024, 85 for 2023, 49 for 2020 and 29 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Faith: 17 for 2020 and 4 for 2019.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 875 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 875 in 2024 against 902 in 2023, down 3 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Meade County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Meade 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 37 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 57 beds, and it ran at 65 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 Meade County Sheriff's Office at meadecounty.org/sheriffs-office (page title: Sheriff | County of Meade), phone 605.347.2681, 1400 Main Street, Sturgis, SD 57785, 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 Meade County
Whether someone was arrested in Meade County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Circuit Court for Meade County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at dakotaathome.sd.gov/search/794ef29f-9e31-544e-adc9-d7313c36c767, phone 605-347-4411); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at meadecounty.org/states-attorney, phone 605.347.4491).
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 Meade 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 Meade County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 605.347.2681.
- An arrest in Sturgis, Summerset or Faith: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, 605.347.4491, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court for Meade County, through the court records page at dakotaathome.sd.gov, phone 605-347-4411.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Cities in Meade County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for three of the four cities in Meade County: Sturgis, Summerset and Faith. Piedmont has 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 Meade County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Meade County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Sturgis (7,014)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Meade County each year?
Sturgis reported 584 arrests to the FBI for 2024, and the three agencies with every month of 2024 on file reported 875 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Meade County?
Ask the Meade County Sheriff's Office at 605.347.2681; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at meadecounty.org/sheriffs-office.
Where are people arrested in Meade County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Meade County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Meade County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Circuit Court for Meade 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 Meade County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Meade 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 Meade 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.