Welcome to the Polk County Sheriff Web Site!

The Office of Sheriff was instituted when the State of Iowa was granted statehood in 1846. Since that time, the Sheriff's Office has been host to 37 elected Officials. Our current Sheriff, Bill McCarthy, was elected by the citizens of Polk County in November of 2008.

The Polk County Sheriff is the chief executive officer of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and manages over 500 employees and an annual budget of more than $46 million. The Sheriff’s Office is a full service law enforcement agency with Patrol, Criminal Investigations, Civil and Jail Divisions. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office manages a state-of-the-art Jail facility with a daily jail population of over 1000 inmates in 2008.