Clearwater County Booking Releases
The Clearwater County website also has a Crime TIP Form for submitting tips about criminal activity. This is unrelated to booking releases but useful if you have information about an ongoing case.
Note: BCA conviction records reflect only cases that resulted in a guilty finding; they do not show current bookings or pending charges.
Minnesota Data Practices and Booking Records
Minnesota law is clear about what booking data must be made public. Under Minn. Stat. 13.82, arrest data is public from the moment a person is taken into custody. This includes the name, date of birth, time and date of arrest, charges, and agency involved. Clearwater County follows this law by posting its inmate list online.
Minn. Stat. 13.85 covers corrections and detention data more broadly. Some records held by the jail, such as medical records, financial information about an inmate's account, and certain private communications, are classified as private data under that statute. Those records are not available through the public inmate list.
Minn. Stat. 641.05 sets standards for county jails, including requirements for record-keeping and the conditions under which inmates are held. Clearwater County's jail operates under these standards. The public inmate list is one product of those record-keeping requirements.
Juvenile records are handled differently. Minnesota law restricts the distribution of information on juveniles held in county facilities. The Clearwater County inmate list does not include juvenile records.
Cities in Clearwater County
Clearwater County has no cities above the qualifying population threshold for a dedicated city page. The largest city is Bagley, the county seat, with a few thousand residents. Smaller communities include Gonvick, Leonard, and Shevlin. All of these fall well below the threshold.
Nearby Counties
Clearwater County borders several counties in northwest Minnesota. Each has its own jail and booking release records.