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 23, 2026.
Crawford County, Wisconsin, has about 16,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Crawford County Sheriff's Office and one city agency. 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 District Attorney files charges, a case in the Crawford County Circuit Court. 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: Crawford County public records, Wisconsin arrest records, Wisconsin inmate search and Wisconsin criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Crawford County
The Crawford County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Crawford County. It reported 321 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
One city in Crawford County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Prairie du Chien, 5,472 residents: 145 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 Crawford 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.
- Crawford County Sheriff's Office: 321 for 2024, 290 for 2023, 274 for 2022 and 726 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Prairie du Chien: 145 for 2025, 131 for 2023, 176 for 2022, 129 for 2021, 312 for 2020 and 318 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2023 on file reported 421 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2023 and 2022 complete reported 421 in 2023 against 450 in 2022, down 6.4 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Crawford County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Crawford 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 2025 the jail held about 22 people, down from about 31 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 40 beds, and it ran at 54 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 Crawford County Sheriff's Office at crawfordcountywi.gov/InmateLists (page title: Official Website for Crawford County Wisconsin | Inmate Lists), phone 608-326-8414, 911 Location 224 N Beaumont Rd Prairie du Chien, WI 53821, Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 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 Crawford County
Whether someone was arrested in Crawford County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Crawford County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Crawford County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at crawfordcountywi.gov/departments/circuitcourt/CriminalActions, phone (608) 326-0209); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at crawfordcountywi.gov/departments/districtattorney, phone (608) 326-1199).
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 Crawford 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 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 Crawford County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 608-326-8414.
- An arrest in Prairie du Chien: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (608) 326-1199, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Crawford County Circuit Court, through the court records page at crawfordcountywi.gov, phone (608) 326-0209.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at crawfordcountysheriffwi.nextrequest.com (page title: Crawford County WI Open Public RecordsNextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Crawford County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the ten cities in Crawford County: Prairie du Chien. Wauzeka, Soldiers Grove, Gays Mills, Eastman, Ferryville, Mount Sterling, Lynxville, Steuben and Bell Center 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 Crawford County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Crawford County each year?
The Crawford County Sheriff's Office reported 321 arrests to the FBI for 2024. For 2023, the latest year most of the agencies in Crawford County sent in full, the two with every month on file reported 421 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Crawford County?
Look on the custody page of the Crawford County Sheriff's Office at crawfordcountywi.gov/InmateLists, or call 608-326-8414. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Crawford County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Crawford County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Crawford County?
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 Crawford County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Crawford County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 crawfordcountysheriffwi.nextrequest.com.
Is this the official Crawford 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.