Search Minnesota Recent Bookings
Minnesota recent bookings are public records held by county sheriffs and local law enforcement across the state. When someone is arrested and brought into custody, that information becomes part of a booking record you can often search online at no cost. Each of Minnesota's 87 counties runs its own jail and keeps its own roster. Some update that data every hour. Others post daily PDF reports or require a direct call to the facility. This page covers how to find recent booking records in Minnesota, which databases to use, and what each record may include.
Minnesota Recent Bookings at a Glance
What Are Minnesota Recent Bookings
A booking record is created each time law enforcement takes a person into custody at a county jail. Jail staff log the person's name, date of birth, home address, the charges they face, the arresting agency, and other basic facts. This process is called a booking. In Minnesota, the data produced at booking is classified as public under Minn. Stat. § 13.82, which defines what criminal justice information government agencies must share with the public upon request.
Booking records are not the same as convictions. A recent booking means a person was arrested and processed at a county jail. It does not mean they are guilty of anything. The record captures what charges were filed at the time of intake. Those charges can later be reduced, dropped, or result in a conviction, but the booking record itself reflects only the moment of arrest. Names, charges, custody status, and court dates are all listed as public data for adults under state law. That information is open to anyone who asks.
All 87 Minnesota counties handle their own jail bookings. The county sheriff is responsible for running the facility and keeping booking logs. Some counties post this data online in near real time. Others release it through daily PDF reports. A few smaller counties require you to call the jail directly to ask about current inmates.
How to Search Minnesota Recent Bookings
There is no single statewide portal that shows all 87 counties at once. You search county by county, or use state-level tools that draw from multiple sources.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) runs a public criminal history search at cdechportal.dps.mn.gov. You pay $8 per search. You need the person's full name and date of birth. The BCA system returns conviction data and arrests from the past 15 years that did not lead to conviction. It does not show who is currently sitting in a county jail, but it is useful for looking up broader history. The BCA's main page at dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca explains what the search covers and how to get started.
For current custody status across multiple counties, VINELink is worth checking. This service lets you search by name or offender ID. You can also register for custody change alerts. Many Minnesota counties participate in VINELink, making it a useful starting point when you are not sure which county to check.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) runs a public offender locator at coms.doc.state.mn.us/PublicViewer. This covers people in state prisons, not county jails. If someone is serving a sentence longer than one year, they may be in a state facility. The locator shows the person's current location, sentencing information, and expected release date.
For court-linked data, the Minnesota Judicial Branch provides online case records. Court records show charges, hearing dates, judgments, and case status. This can help you confirm what happened after the initial booking and whether charges were filed formally.
Note: If an online search returns nothing, call the county jail directly. Not every county posts rosters online, and some systems show only current inmates with no history.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension maintains the state's main public criminal history search, where you can look up arrest and conviction records from agencies across all 87 counties.
The BCA portal and full search details are available at dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca.
Minnesota County Jail Rosters and Recent Booking Databases
Several large counties post online rosters with regular updates. The depth of that data and the update schedule vary widely from one county to the next.
Hennepin County operates one of the most detailed jail rosters in the state. Search it at jailroster.hennepin.us. It updates every hour and shows current inmates plus those released within the past seven days. You can filter by name, custody status, arresting agency, and date range. The county books roughly 40,000 people each year across facilities including the Public Safety Facility at 401 South 4th Avenue in Minneapolis and the Adult Corrections Facility in Plymouth. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office jail page has visiting hours, contact numbers, and inmate communication options.
Ramsey County updates its Adult Detention Center roster every 30 minutes. Find it at ramseycountymn.gov. The open data portal at opendata.ramseycountymn.gov also carries the current roster. Records include names, booking dates, arresting charges, formal charges if filed, court case numbers, and court dates. This 500-bed pre-trial facility at 425 Grove Street in St. Paul holds people awaiting trial, not sentenced inmates.
Dakota County runs a searchable inmate system through co.dakota.mn.us. The direct supervision facility in Hastings takes about 9,000 bookings per year. You can see current inmates with booking dates, charges, court info, and bail amounts. Dakota County also publishes its jail fee schedule at co.dakota.mn.us, which covers booking fees and other costs.
Washington County publishes daily booking reports as PDF downloads at co.washington.mn.us. Pick the day you want and download the file. Each report lists names, ages, booking numbers, arrest times, and release estimates. The full inmate roster is available separately, and the Jail Division page at co.washington.mn.us/3197/Jail-Division covers visiting, mail, and commissary details. The jail in Stillwater holds up to 228 people.
Anoka County has an inmate locator at anokacountymn.gov/727/Inmate-Locator that covers current inmates and those released within the past 10 days. You can search by name, booking number, or date range. The jail and warrants page at anokacountymn.gov/443/Jail-Warrants has additional detail. Anoka County processes close to 11,000 warrants each year.
Stearns County offers one of the broader search tools in the state at stearnscountymn.gov/561/Inmate-Warrant-Searches. You can search current inmates, past inmates from the last seven years, outstanding warrants, and a most-wanted list. Filter options include name, gender, age, bail amount, and charge level. The jail page at stearnscountymn.gov/227/Jail covers the facility in St. Cloud.
Olmsted County posts a daily custody list at olmstedcounty.gov. The detainee list is also searchable directly at webapp.co.olmsted.mn.us. Active warrant information is at olmstedcounty.gov/active-warrants.
St. Louis County updates its jail roster every hour at stlouiscountymn.gov. The jail in Duluth holds 197 people, with additional lockup space in Hibbing and Virginia for short-term holds on the Iron Range. The Jail Division page at stlouiscountymn.gov/departments-a-z/sheriff/jail covers jail policies and contact details.
Sherburne County runs a searchable inmate system at co.sherburne.mn.us/903/Inmate-Search. The facility in Elk River is a 732-bed regional jail that also houses more than 500 federal detainees on a given day, including ICE and U.S. Marshal holds. The jail page at co.sherburne.mn.us/400/Jail has full details.
Minnesota's Department of Corrections public viewer lets you search for people held in state correctional facilities, which is useful when someone has moved beyond county jail custody into the state prison system.
Access the DOC offender search at coms.doc.state.mn.us/PublicViewer to check state inmates and supervised releasees statewide.
What Minnesota Recent Booking Records Include
Minnesota's data practices law is specific about what booking information is public. Under Minn. Stat. § 13.82, the following data is public for adults who are arrested:
- Full name, age, sex, and address of the person arrested
- Date, time, and location of the arrest
- Nature of the charges filed
- Name of the arresting agency
- Current custody status
- Bail or bond amounts
- Scheduled court appearance dates
Not all booking data is public. Confidential informant identities are protected. Victim information in certain case types is withheld. Active investigative data that could harm an ongoing case is not released. Juvenile records are generally closed. Medical and mental health information is also classified as private under state data rules. When you request records at the county level, staff provide the public portion and withhold the rest automatically.
Minn. Stat. § 641.08 requires every county sheriff in Minnesota to maintain records of all persons committed to the jail. This is why each of the 87 counties keeps some form of booking log, regardless of whether that data is posted online.
General public access to government data is also governed by Minn. Stat. § 13.03, which gives anyone the right to inspect and receive copies of public government data. You do not need to state a reason when asking for booking records. You just need to make the request to the right agency.
How Long Minnesota Keeps Booking Records
Minnesota sets retention schedules by law. Under Minn. Stat. § 138.17, felony arrest records stay on file for 15 years from discharge or dismissal. Gross misdemeanor records are kept for 10 years. Misdemeanor records stay for five years. Petty misdemeanor records last three years.
Online rosters often show a much shorter window. Some county systems show only who is currently in jail. Others include releases from the past 7 to 10 days. Stearns County allows searches going back seven years through its online tool. If you need records older than what an online system shows, contact the county sheriff's records division. They can often retrieve data for a specific request that goes back further than the public portal displays.
Counties can charge a booking fee under Minn. Stat. § 641.12. Dakota County charges $25. Washington County also charges $25 per booking. If someone is not charged, is acquitted, or has charges dismissed, they may request a refund of that booking fee.
Note: Jail records are also subject to public access requirements under Minn. Stat. § 641.05, which requires records to be available in line with Minnesota's Government Data Practices Act, Chapter 13.
Expungement of Minnesota Booking Records
A booking record does not go away on its own. Even when charges are dropped or a person is found not guilty, the booking data remains part of the public record until a court orders it sealed. To have arrest or booking information removed from public access in Minnesota, someone must file a petition for expungement. The governing law is Minnesota Statutes Chapter 609A. It covers cases resolved in the defendant's favor, certain convictions after waiting periods of two to five years, diversion program completions, and some drug offenses.
The process starts with a petition filed in the district court that heard the case. The court notifies every agency holding the records. If the petition is granted, those agencies must seal the data. Sealed records are no longer visible through a standard public request. Expungement does not erase the underlying event, and law enforcement can still access sealed records in certain situations. The Minnesota Judicial Branch has forms and step-by-step guides at mncourts.gov. Free legal help is available through LawHelpMN and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid.
Additional Resources for Minnesota Recent Bookings
Beyond the county rosters, a few other databases help fill in gaps across the state.
Minnesota State Records pulls together public data from multiple sources and can be a useful first stop when you are not sure which county to check. Public Records Online Searches also indexes Minnesota jail inmate data and may surface county records that are harder to find directly.
The Minnesota Predatory Offender Registry at por.doc.state.mn.us is a searchable database for registered offenders. It shows photos, addresses, conviction information, and compliance status. The BCA also manages sex offender registration records through the dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca portal. These registries track a different population than current jail rosters, but they often come up in searches related to recent booking data.
The full text of every Minnesota statute, including those governing public access to booking records, is at revisor.mn.gov/statutes. If you want to understand your rights when requesting data from a county jail, reading Chapter 13 of the Minnesota Statutes is worth the time. The state's Government Data Practices Act is the foundation for all public records access in Minnesota, including jail and arrest records.
For legal help with questions about accessing records or challenging data that appears in a booking system, LawHelpMN.org has self-help guides. The Minnesota State Bar Association has a lawyer referral service at mnbar.org if you need more direct help.
Browse Minnesota Recent Bookings by County
Each of Minnesota's 87 counties has its own sheriff's office and jail. Select a county below to find local booking resources, roster links, and contact information for that area.
View All 87 Minnesota Counties
Minnesota Recent Bookings in Major Cities
City residents are booked into the county jail that serves their area. Select a city below to find specific booking information, county jail links, and local police resources.