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 on September 24, 2026.
Minnehaha County, South Dakota, has about 209,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Minnehaha 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 Minnehaha 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: Minnehaha County public records, South Dakota arrest records, South Dakota inmate search and South Dakota criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Minnehaha County
The Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Minnehaha County. It reported 1,178 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Minnehaha County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Sioux Falls, 209,289 residents: 8,024 arrests reported for 2025.
- Brandon, 10,837 residents: 114 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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Minnehaha County
The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts 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.
- Sioux Falls: 8,024 for 2025, 8,218 for 2024, 7,237 for 2023, 8,147 for 2022, 8,623 for 2021 and 9,021 for 2020.
- Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office: 1,178 for 2025, 1,187 for 2024, 1,200 for 2023, 1,259 for 2022, 1,313 for 2021 and 1,176 for 2020.
- Brandon: 114 for 2025, 206 for 2024, 125 for 2022, 167 for 2021, 176 for 2020 and 204 for 2019; 2023 is missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 9,316 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 9,316 in 2025 against 9,611 in 2024, down 3.1 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Minnehaha County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Minnehaha 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 290 people, up from about 290 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 422 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 custody page of the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office at web.minnehahacounty.gov/dept/so/jailInmateInfo/browseJailInmate.php (page title: Minnehaha County Who's Behind Bars), phone 605-367-4321, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the South Dakota Department of Corrections lists its inmates at doc.sd.gov/adult-corrections/offender-locator.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Minnehaha County
Whether someone was arrested in Minnehaha County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Circuit Court for Minnehaha County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at minnehahacounty.gov/search/search.php?q=court+records); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at minnehahacounty.gov/dept/sa/sa.php, phone (605) 367-4226).
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 Minnehaha 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 Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 605-367-4321.
- An arrest in Sioux Falls or Brandon: 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) 367-4226, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court for Minnehaha County, through the court records page at minnehahacounty.gov.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Cities in Minnehaha County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for two of the 11 cities in Minnehaha County: Sioux Falls and Brandon. Dell Rapids, Hartford, Crooks, Baltic, Garretson, Valley Springs, Colton, Humboldt and Sherman 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 Minnehaha County.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Minnehaha County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Sioux Falls (209,289)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Minnehaha County each year?
Sioux Falls reported 8,024 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 9,316 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Minnehaha County?
Look on the custody page of the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office at web.minnehahacounty.gov, or call 605-367-4321. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Minnehaha County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Minnehaha County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Circuit Court for Minnehaha 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 Minnehaha County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Minnehaha 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 Minnehaha 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.