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.
Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, has about 109,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office, four city agencies and one campus 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 Eau Claire 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: Eau Claire County public records, Wisconsin arrest records, Wisconsin inmate search and Wisconsin criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Eau Claire County
The Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Eau Claire County. It reported 982 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Eau Claire County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Eau Claire, 72,331 residents: 3,768 arrests reported for 2025.
- Altoona, 9,302 residents: 318 arrests reported for 2025.
- Augusta, 1,495 residents: 145 arrests reported for 2025.
- Fall Creek, 1,391 residents: 22 arrests reported for 2024.
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 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 Each Agency Reports in Eau Claire 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.
- Eau Claire: 3,768 for 2025, 3,241 for 2023, 3,170 for 2022, 3,308 for 2021, 3,757 for 2020 and 5,378 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office: 982 for 2025, 1,159 for 2024, 1,079 for 2023, 1,300 for 2022, 934 for 2020 and 1,393 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Altoona: 318 for 2025, 344 for 2024, 317 for 2023, 266 for 2022, 288 for 2021 and 347 for 2020.
- Augusta: 145 for 2025, 106 for 2024, 150 for 2023 and 197 for 2022.
- Fall Creek: 22 for 2024, 23 for 2020 and 31 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,213 arrests that year. The three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,445 in 2025 against 1,609 in 2024, down 10 percent.
Through March 2026, the four agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,197 arrests, against 1,125 in the same months of 2025.
Fall Creek reported only part of 2025 (9 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Eau Claire County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Eau Claire County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
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 Eau Claire County
Whether someone was arrested in Eau Claire County, 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 Eau Claire 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 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 Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 715-839-4707.
- An arrest in Eau Claire, Altoona, Augusta or Fall Creek: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire: the records office of the agency involved.
- 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.
Cities in Eau Claire County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the five cities in Eau Claire County: Eau Claire, Altoona, Augusta and Fall Creek. Fairchild 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 Eau Claire County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Eau Claire County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Altoona (9,302)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Eau Claire County each year?
Eau Claire reported 3,768 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,213 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Eau Claire County?
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 Eau Claire County 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 Eau Claire 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 Eau Claire County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Eau Claire 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 eauclairewi.gov/754/Public-Records-Request.
Is this the official Eau Claire 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.