Lake County Booking Reports Search
Lake County booking reports are available through the Sheriff's Office in Tavares, Florida. The county is located in Central Florida, just west of Orlando, and its jail handles a steady volume of arrests each year. The Lake County Sheriff's Office runs an online inmate search tool that lets you look up current inmates and view booking information from your computer or phone. If you need to find out who has been booked into the Lake County jail, the whole process can be done without leaving your home.
Lake County Quick Facts
Lake County Sheriff's Office
The Lake County Sheriff's Office is at 551 West Main Street in Tavares. The phone number is 239.742.4000. This is the primary agency that runs the county jail and keeps booking reports for Lake County. The sheriff's office also handles patrol, criminal investigations, and court security. When someone is arrested anywhere in Lake County, the booking goes through this office.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office website is the hub for public information. You can find inmate data, crime reports, and contact details all in one place. The agency serves a growing population, and the jail sees a good number of bookings each week. Lake County sits in the 5th Judicial Circuit, and court hearings for people booked into the jail take place at the Lake County courthouse in Tavares.
The LCSO main page provides a starting point for looking up booking reports and other public records.
From the homepage, you can find links to the inmate search, tip lines, and other services the sheriff's office provides to Lake County residents.
| Address | 551 West Main Street, Tavares, Florida 32778 |
|---|---|
| Phone | 239.742.4000 |
| Website | lcso.org |
Lake County Inmate Search
The Lake County Sheriff's Office has an online inmate search at lcso.org/inmates. This tool lets you look up people who are currently in the Lake County jail. Enter a name and the system returns matching booking records. Each record shows the person's name, booking date, charges, and bond information. The tool is free to use and open to anyone.
The search results pull directly from the jail management system. That means the data is current and comes from an official source. You can click on individual records to see more detail, including the booking photo and a breakdown of each charge. Lake County updates this information on a regular basis, so what you see is close to what the jail has on file at that moment.
If you need records for someone who has already been released, the online tool may not show them. In that case, you can call the sheriff's office or submit a public records request in writing. Under Florida Statute Chapter 119, you have the right to ask for past booking reports. The agency must provide them at a reasonable cost.
Note: The online search covers Lake County jail inmates only, not people held in state prison.
Lake County Booking Process
When someone is arrested in Lake County, they are taken to the county jail in Tavares for booking. The process starts with identification. Deputies record the person's name, date of birth, address, and physical features. A booking photo is taken. Fingerprints are collected. Under Chapter 943 of the Florida Statutes, all of this biometric data must be submitted electronically to state databases for adults charged with felonies or misdemeanors.
After the personal information is logged, the charges are entered into the system. A bond amount may be set based on a schedule or by a judge at the first appearance hearing. Lake County holds first appearance hearings within 24 hours of arrest. At that hearing, the judge reviews the charges, considers the person's record, and decides on bond conditions. All of this becomes part of the booking report.
People who post bond leave the jail. Those who cannot post bond wait in custody for their case to move through the court system. People sentenced to more than a year go to the Florida Department of Corrections. You can look up state inmates through the FDC offender search tool, which gets refreshed every week.
Booking Records and Florida Law
Florida's public records laws are among the most open in the country. Chapter 119 says all government records are open to inspection and copying. That includes booking reports in Lake County. Any person can ask to see them. You do not need to give a reason.
Chapter 901, Section 901.43, deals with booking photos. It makes it a violation for any commercial website to charge money to remove a booking photo. If your booking photo from Lake County shows up on one of these sites and they ask for payment, you can send a written removal request. The site must take it down within 10 days. If it does not comply, the civil penalty starts at $1,000 per day and goes up to $5,000 per day for republication.
Some records are exempt. Medical files, juvenile records, and sealed or expunged cases cannot be viewed by the public. But the vast majority of adult booking reports in Lake County are fully public and can be inspected by anyone.
Nearby Counties
Lake County borders several Central Florida counties. If you are not sure where an arrest happened, check these neighboring areas as well.