Lake of the Woods County Bookings

Lake of the Woods County recent bookings are processed and held by the Sheriff's Office in Baudette, which is the county seat and the main population center in this remote northern Minnesota county along the Canadian border. The county is one of the least densely populated in the state, and all jail intake goes through the single facility in Baudette. Minnesota law treats most arrest data as public information. Under Minnesota Statute 13.82, the Sheriff's Office must make booking records available to the public on request, covering the name of the person booked, charges at the time of arrest, the booking date, and the arresting agency. This page explains how to access those records and what the law says about them.

Booking Records in Lake of the Woods County

Lake of the Woods County is located at the very top of Minnesota. It shares a border with Canada to the north, and part of the county is accessible only through Canada due to the geography of the lake it is named for. The county is small in population but covers a wide area that includes wilderness land, resorts, and small communities. Law enforcement here involves the Sheriff's Office, which works alongside state troopers, conservation officers, and occasionally federal agencies. All arrests made by these agencies within the county result in bookings processed at the Baudette jail.

A booking record is created each time someone is arrested and processed into the county jail. Under section 13.82 of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, that record is classified as public data. The Sheriff's Office must provide it to any person who asks. You do not need to explain why you want it, and no fee is charged simply for asking about public booking data. The record will show the person's name, the date of arrest, the charges, and the agency that made the arrest.

Lake of the Woods County falls under the Ninth Judicial District. If a case moves forward to court, you can track it through the Minnesota Courts public portal, which covers all district courts in the state including the Ninth District.

What the Booking Record Shows

The core booking record in Lake of the Woods County includes the person's full legal name, the time and date they were brought into the jail, the charges listed at the time of booking, any bail or bond amount set by the court, and the arresting agency. This is the standard set of fields that section 13.82 covers. These fields are open. The Sheriff cannot withhold them from a member of the public who makes a proper request under the data practices law.

Other data is not in the public booking record. Home addresses, dates of birth, and personal identifiers beyond the arrest facts are restricted under the privacy rules that run alongside the public access rules in the same statute. Juvenile bookings are handled separately and do not appear in the adult jail log. For a more complete background check on a person, the Minnesota BCA criminal history portal is the right tool. It costs $8 per search and pulls from statewide data going back years. You need a name and date of birth to run it.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections offender search covers people in the state prison system. That is a separate population from the county jail, but worth checking if you need to know about prior incarceration at the state level.

How to Get Booking Records from Lake of the Woods County

Lake of the Woods County does not run a public online jail roster. To find out who is currently in custody or to request recent booking records, contact the Sheriff's Office in Baudette directly. The phone number is 218-634-2615. You can also go in person to the office at 206 8th Ave. SE in Baudette during regular business hours. Staff handle public data requests under state law and must respond within a reasonable time. Booking data that falls under section 13.82 is public and must be shared upon request.

For broader searches outside the county, the BCA at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety is the central resource for statewide criminal history. That search requires a fee and a date of birth. The Minnesota Courts portal is free for most searches and covers case filings in all district courts, including the Ninth District that handles Lake of the Woods County cases.

For victim notification, you can sign up through VINELink. This free service sends you an alert when a specific person in custody is released or moved. It works statewide and is set up through Minnesota's corrections system infrastructure. Registering is simple and does not require any special authorization.

Lake of the Woods County Sheriff's Office

The Lake of the Woods County Sheriff's Office in Baudette handles all law enforcement and jail operations for the county. The office manages bookings, inmate records, and public data requests. For questions about a recent arrest or a current inmate, the contacts below are where to start. The county website includes links to Sheriff services and contact information for other county offices.

Retention Rules, Booking Fees, and Expungement

Booking records in Lake of the Woods County do not simply vanish after an inmate is released. Minnesota sets retention rules under Statute 138.17 that tell county agencies how long they must hold government records before disposal. Jail and booking files fall under these rules. The retention period runs well past the date of release or case resolution. That means a booking record from several years ago may still be on file even if no charges were ever pursued. The county follows the state schedule and must keep records for the defined period.

When someone is booked into the county jail, a processing fee is assessed under Minnesota Statute 641.12. This fee is charged at intake regardless of what happens with the charges later. It is tied to the act of booking, not to any finding of guilt. Counties collect this fee to offset the cost of processing an arrest. The person booked is responsible for the fee whether or not they are convicted.

If someone wants to seal an arrest record, they can apply for expungement under Minnesota Statute 609A. The process involves filing a petition in court and showing that you meet the criteria set by the statute. A granted petition seals the court file and may also seal the law enforcement record depending on the case type. Not all arrests qualify. The charge, the case outcome, and the amount of time that has passed all matter. LawHelpMN offers free guides that walk through the expungement rules in plain terms and can help you figure out whether a Lake of the Woods County case might qualify.

The Minnesota BCA criminal history search portal lets you run statewide record checks that pull arrest and conviction data from all Minnesota counties, including Lake of the Woods.

The BCA portal is run by the Department of Public Safety and covers records going back many years. It is the most complete tool for checking a person's criminal history across the full state rather than just one county's jail log.

Nearby Counties

Lake of the Woods County borders Roseau and Beltrami counties to the south. Each county runs its own jail. If you are unsure which county an arrest was processed in, check both.