Wausau Arrest Records: Who Makes Arrests, Where People Are Booked and How to Get the Report

Who Makes Arrests in Wausau

The FBI lists Wausau with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Wausau Police Department. It reported 1,837 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 Marathon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 707 arrests for 2025.

How Many Arrests Wausau 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.

• Wausau: 1,837 for 2025, 1,786 for 2023, 1,842 for 2022, 2,063 for 2021, 2,162 for 2020 and 2,755 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.

Through April 2026, Wausau reported 503 arrests, against 590 in the same months of 2025.

Across Marathon County, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,488 arrests between them.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Wausau Are Held

The county jail is where a person arrested in Wausau 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 220 people, up from about 200 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 279 beds, and it ran at 77 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 Marathon County Sheriff's Office at marathoncounty.gov/about-us/departments/sheriff-s-office (page title: Sheriff's Office | Marathon County, WI), phone 715-261-1200, 500 Forest Street Wausau, WI 54403, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 9, 2026.

A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Wisconsin Department of Corrections lists its inmates at appsdoc.wi.gov/lop/welcome.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Wausau

An arrest in Wausau can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Marathon County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at marathoncounty.gov/services/public-safety-courts/circuit-court-reco..., phone 715-261-1300); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at marathoncounty.gov/about-us/departments/district-attorney, phone 715-261-1111).

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 Wausau

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 Wausau police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at wausauwi.gov/your-government/police/records-requests (page title: Records Requests | Wausau, WI), phone 715-261-7800, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
• An arrest by the Marathon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 715-261-1200.
• A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 715-261-1111, handles discovery for pending cases.
• The court file of a case that was filed: the Marathon County Circuit Court, through the court records page at marathoncounty.gov, phone 715-261-1300.
• Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.

The Marathon County guide covers every agency in the county: Marathon County arrest records.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Wausau each year?

Wausau reported 1,837 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.

How do I find out if someone is in jail in Wausau?

Ask the Marathon County Sheriff's Office at 715-261-1200; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at marathoncounty.gov.

Where are people arrested in Wausau booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Marathon County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Wausau?

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 Wausau?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Wausau police for its own arrests, the Marathon 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.

Is this the official Wausau 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.