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 between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Kenosha County, Wisconsin, has about 169,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office, three 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 Kenosha 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: Kenosha County public records, Wisconsin arrest records, Wisconsin inmate search and Wisconsin criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Kenosha County
The Kenosha County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Kenosha County. It reported 1,564 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists three cities in Kenosha County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Kenosha, 99,578 residents: 3,265 arrests reported for 2025.
- Pleasant Prairie, 21,802 residents: 617 arrests reported for 2025.
- Twin Lakes, 6,328 residents: 194 arrests reported for 2023.
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 Genoa City Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Kenosha County, so its arrests are not broken out for Kenosha County here.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Kenosha County: the University of Wisconsin at Parkside (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Kenosha 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.
- Kenosha: 3,265 for 2025, 3,577 for 2023, 3,327 for 2022, 2,794 for 2021, 3,017 for 2020 and 5,321 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Kenosha County Sheriff's Office: 1,564 for 2025, 1,628 for 2023, 1,561 for 2022, 1,474 for 2021, 1,149 for 2020 and 2,008 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Pleasant Prairie: 617 for 2025, 767 for 2024, 733 for 2023, 808 for 2022, 731 for 2021 and 965 for 2020.
- Twin Lakes: 194 for 2023, 132 for 2020 and 162 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,446 arrests that year. The one of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 617 in 2025 against 767 in 2024, down 20 percent.
Through March 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,191 arrests, against 1,400 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Kenosha County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Kenosha 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 520 people, down from about 700 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2025 was 775 beds, and it ran at 67 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 Kenosha County Sheriff's Office at kenoshacountywi.gov/1815/Inmate-Searches (page title: Inmate Searches | Kenosha County, WI), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 2, 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 Wisconsin Department of Corrections lists its inmates at appsdoc.wi.gov/lop/welcome.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Kenosha County
Whether someone was arrested in Kenosha County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Kenosha County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at kenoshacountywi.gov/1311/Court-Case-Tracker); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at kenoshacountywi.gov/148/District-Attorney, phone 262-653-2400).
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 Kenosha 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 Kenosha County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie or Twin Lakes: 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 Parkside: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 262-653-2400, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Kenosha County Circuit Court, through the court records page at kenoshacountywi.gov/1311/Court-Case-Tracker.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at kenoshacountywi.gov/2463/DCFS-Records-Request (page title: DCFS Records Request | Kenosha County, WI).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Kenosha County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for three of the seven cities in Kenosha County: Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie and Twin Lakes. Salem Lakes, Somers, Bristol and Paddock Lake 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 Kenosha County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Kenosha County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Pleasant Prairie (21,802)
- Salem Lakes (14,302)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Kenosha County each year?
Kenosha reported 3,265 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,446 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Kenosha County?
Look on the custody page of the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office at kenoshacountywi.gov/1815/Inmate-Searches. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Kenosha County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Kenosha 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 Kenosha County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Kenosha 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 kenoshacountywi.gov/2463/DCFS-Records-Request.
Is this the official Kenosha 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.