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.
Marathon County, Wisconsin, has about 139,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Marathon County Sheriff's Office and eight city agencies. 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 Marathon 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: Marathon County public records, Wisconsin arrest records, Wisconsin inmate search and Wisconsin criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Marathon County
The Marathon County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Marathon County. It reported 707 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside seven of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Wausau, 40,262 residents: 1,837 arrests reported for 2025.
- Kronenwetter, 8,435 residents: 87 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mosinee, 4,531 residents: 46 arrests reported for 2024.
- Spencer, 1,813 residents: 30 arrests reported for 2019.
- Marathon City, 1,551 residents: 14 arrests reported for 2025.
- Edgar, 1,430 residents: 11 arrests reported for 2022.
- Athens, 1,064 residents: 8 arrests reported for 2020.
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 Marshfield Police Department and the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Marathon County, so their arrests are not broken out for Marathon County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Marathon 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.
- 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.
- Mountain Bay Metropolitan: 843 for 2025.
- Marathon County Sheriff's Office: 707 for 2025, 714 for 2024, 787 for 2023, 716 for 2022, 778 for 2021 and 779 for 2020.
- Kronenwetter: 87 for 2025, 104 for 2024, 89 for 2023, 53 for 2022, 44 for 2021 and 52 for 2020.
- Marathon City: 14 for 2025, 9 for 2024, 11 for 2020 and 25 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Mosinee: 46 for 2024, 49 for 2023, 30 for 2022, 21 for 2021, 72 for 2020 and 121 for 2019.
- Spencer: 30 for 2019.
- Edgar: 11 for 2022, 1 for 2021, 10 for 2020 and 3 for 2019.
- Athens: 8 for 2020 and 15 for 2019.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,488 arrests that year. The three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 808 in 2025 against 827 in 2024, down 2.3 percent.
Athens, Spencer and Mosinee reported only part of 2025 (4 months, 11 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Marathon County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Marathon 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 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 custody page of the Marathon County Sheriff's Office at marathoncounty.wisconsincourt.us/inmate-records.html (page title: Marathon County Inmate Search | Jail Roster), phone 715-261-1700, 500 Forest Street Wausau, WI 54403, Monday 6:30 PM-9:00 PM, 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 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 Marathon County
Whether someone was arrested in Marathon County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Marathon County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; 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 Marathon 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 Marathon County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 715-261-1700.
- An arrest in Wausau, Kronenwetter, Mosinee, Spencer, Marathon City, Edgar or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- 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.
Cities in Marathon County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the 17 cities in Marathon County: Wausau, Kronenwetter, Mosinee, Spencer, Marathon City, Edgar and Athens. Weston, Rib Mountain, Rothschild, Maine, Schofield, Stratford, Hatley, Unity, Elderon and Fenwood have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list. The FBI's list also carries the Mountain Bay Metropolitan Police Department as a city agency in Marathon County; Mountain Bay Metropolitan is not among the cities above.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Marathon County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Marathon County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Wausau (40,262)
- Weston (15,866)
- Kronenwetter (8,435)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Marathon County each year?
Wausau reported 1,837 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,488 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Marathon County?
Look on the custody page of the Marathon County Sheriff's Office at marathoncounty.wisconsincourt.us, or call 715-261-1700. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Marathon County 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 Marathon 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 Marathon County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Marathon 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.
Is this the official Marathon 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.