Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. 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 23, 2026 and September 26, 2026.
Altoona, Wisconsin, in Eau Claire County, has about 9,300 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the Eau Claire County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Altoona public records, Eau Claire County arrest records, Wisconsin arrest records and Wisconsin inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Altoona
The FBI lists Altoona with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Altoona Police Department. It reported 318 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 982 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Eau Claire County: the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire (campus police).
How Many Arrests Altoona Reports
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.
- Altoona: 318 for 2025, 344 for 2024, 317 for 2023, 266 for 2022, 288 for 2021 and 347 for 2020.
Altoona's 318 arrests in 2025 were down 7.6 percent from 344 in 2024.
Through April 2026, Altoona reported 161 arrests, against 107 in the same months of 2025.
Across Eau Claire County, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,213 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Altoona Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Altoona 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 2025 the jail held about 190 people, down from about 270 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 418 beds, and it ran at 45 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 Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office at eauclairecounty.gov/departments/sheriff/inmate_listing (page title: Inmate Listing | Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office), phone 715-839-4707, 710 Second Ave. Eau Claire, WI 54703, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 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 person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at appsdoc.wi.gov/lop/welcome.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Altoona
Whether someone was arrested in Altoona, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Eau Claire County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at eauclairecounty.gov/departments/clerk_of_courts/search_and_copy_req..., phone 715-839-4816); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at eauclairecounty.gov/departments/district_attorney/about, phone 715-839-4828).
Statewide, Wisconsin Circuit Court Access is the free statewide case search of every circuit court.
Wisconsin is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Wisconsin Online Record Check System lets anyone run a name-based check, through the Wisconsin Department of Justice. 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 Altoona
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 Wisconsin Public Records Law the agency must answer as soon as practicable and without delay; the law sets no number of days, and it may charge the actual cost of copying and locating, with no charge for the first $50 of locating.
- An arrest by the Altoona police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at altoonawi.gov/services/police/request_records.php (page title: City of Altoona, WI), phone 715-839-6090, 1904 Spooner Avenue, Altoona, WI 54720, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 715-839-4707.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 715-839-4828, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Eau Claire County Circuit Court, through the court records page at eauclairecounty.gov, phone 715-839-4816.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at eauclairewi.gov/754/Public-Records-Request (page title: Public Records Request | Eau Claire, WI).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Eau Claire County guide covers every agency in the county: Eau Claire County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Altoona each year?
Altoona reported 318 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Altoona?
Look on the custody page of the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office at eauclairecounty.gov, or call 715-839-4707. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Altoona booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Altoona?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Wisconsin Department of Justice: the Wisconsin Online Record Check System lets anyone run a name-based check. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Wisconsin Public Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Altoona?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Altoona police for its own arrests, the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Wisconsin Public Records Law the answer is due as soon as practicable and without delay; the law sets no number of days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at eauclairewi.gov/754/Public-Records-Request.
Is this the official Altoona website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.