Search Lincoln County Booking Reports

Lincoln County booking reports are managed by the sheriff's office based in Hugo. This is one of the more sparsely populated counties in eastern Colorado, stretching across the plains between Denver and the Kansas border. Despite its small population, booking reports here are still public records and follow the same state laws as every other Colorado county. The sheriff's office processes all local arrests and maintains the booking data. If you need to find booking information for someone in Lincoln County, you will need to contact the sheriff directly or use one of Colorado's statewide record search systems.

Lincoln County Sheriff's Office

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is the main law enforcement agency for the entire county. They run the county jail and handle all bookings. The office is in Hugo, the county seat. You can reach them by phone at 719-743-2426. When someone gets arrested in Lincoln County, deputies bring them to the jail for processing. The booking creates a record that includes the person's name, date of birth, charges, arresting officer, and the date and time of the booking.

Lincoln County does not have an online inmate search. This is common for smaller counties in Colorado. The volume of bookings is low enough that the sheriff's office handles inquiries by phone. If you call and ask about a specific person, they can usually tell you if that person is in custody or has a recent booking on file. For a written copy, you will likely need to submit a records request. Have the person's full name ready when you call. A date of birth makes the search go faster.

Statewide Booking Record Searches

Colorado runs two free or low-cost tools that can help you find booking records without calling the sheriff's office. The first is VINE, the Victim Information and Notification Everyday system. You can use it at vinelink.com for free. Select Colorado, then search for an inmate by name. VINE shows custody status and lets you sign up for notifications. If the person in Lincoln County gets released or moved, VINE will alert you by phone, email, or text. The toll-free line is 1-888-263-8463.

The VINE search page is shown below. It works for inmates across all Colorado counties including Lincoln County.

VINE is especially useful if you need to monitor someone's status over time rather than just checking once.

The second tool is the CBI Internet Criminal History Check. This one costs $6.85 per search but gives you a broader picture. It pulls arrest records from the entire state. Enter the person's name and date of birth, and the system returns matching records. This can include Lincoln County booking data as well as records from any other county where the person has been arrested. The CBI check is useful when you want a full history, not just a current jail status.

Note: CBI results may take several minutes to process depending on system load.

Lincoln County Records and the Law

Booking reports in Colorado are public records under the Criminal Justice Records Act. The CCJRA starts at C.R.S. § 24-72-301. Under this law, records of official actions by criminal justice agencies must be open to the public. Arrests and bookings count as official actions. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office must allow people to inspect these records and provide copies on request. The law gives the agency 3 business days to respond to a request. If the request is large, they can take up to 7 additional days.

Under § 24-72-302, an arrest record has to show the name of the person arrested, the charges, and the arresting agency. This is the minimum that must be disclosed. The Lincoln County Sheriff cannot withhold this basic information from a booking report. There are some exceptions for sealed records and certain juvenile cases, but for adult bookings, the records stay public unless a court orders them sealed later on.

Fees for copies are standard across the state. The first hour of research time is free. After that, agencies can charge up to $41.37 per hour. Paper copies are $0.25 each page. For a small rural county like Lincoln, most requests are simple and quick, so you probably will not hit that hourly charge unless you are asking for a large batch of records.

Corrections and Court Records

If someone from Lincoln County was sentenced to state prison, you can search for them through the Colorado Department of Corrections offender lookup at doc.state.co.us/oss. This free tool shows current state prison inmates and their facility, sentence, and parole information. It is separate from the county booking report but can help you track what happened after the initial arrest in Lincoln County.

Court records for Lincoln County cases go through the 18th Judicial District courts. You can check case outcomes and filings through the Colorado Judicial Branch website. Court records are different from booking reports but they are related. The booking report covers the arrest. The court record covers everything that happened in the case after charges were filed. Together they give you the full picture of a criminal case in Lincoln County.

Note: Sealed records will not appear in any of these searches.

Booking Photos in Lincoln County

Colorado law at C.R.S. § 24-72-305.5 addresses booking photos specifically. Mugshots are public records and can be released by the sheriff's office. However, it is a crime to post a booking photo online and demand payment for its removal. This is a class 3 misdemeanor in Colorado with fines up to $1,000. The law protects people from exploitation through mugshot websites. It does not prevent the release of photos through proper records requests. If you need a Lincoln County booking photo, include it in your written request to the sheriff's office at 719-743-2426.

Nearby Counties

Lincoln County shares borders with several eastern Colorado counties. Booking reports are held by whichever county made the arrest, so make sure you check the right one.