The Texas Department of Public Safety, DPS, establishes the Texas Public Sex Offender Website under article 62.005 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as the official internet access to its sex offender registration database. Its registry search runs three ways: by registrant last name, first name and birth date; by map address, with the address search taking a street address, a ZIP Code or a county and plotting the results, with an unmapped category for addresses the mapping cannot place; and by institution of higher education and campus. Beside the search sit a link to the national search, a subscription service that emails notices of database changes to anyone who creates an account, a download of the whole public registry for people who want to run comparisons or statistics, with separate terms for social networking site operators, the Texas 10 Most Wanted sex offenders, and a table of Texas offenses tiered under the federal Adam Walsh Act; support answers at (855) 481-7070 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The site's caveats say what a result is worth. Every record rests on registration information submitted by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department or local agencies; a search by name, birth date or other identifier is not always accurate, and the only positive link between a person and a record is fingerprint verification, so an error is reported to the local agency that last verified the registrant, named on the record. Everything on the site is open record usable by anyone for any purpose, with the legislature withholding the Social Security number, driver license number, telephone numbers, online identifiers and anything DPS keeps for law enforcement, and judicial orders keep some offenders off the public database; using the information to injure or harass anyone is a crime and a civil wrong. A person's registering agency is the police chief or sheriff of the place of residence, found through the Texas county pages.
- Search: the DPS registry search by name and birth date, by address, ZIP Code or county on a map, or by college campus, with email alerts by subscription and a full registry download.
- Who registers: anyone with a reportable conviction or adjudication under article 62.001, including deferred adjudications and juvenile cases, anyone ordered to register as a condition of parole or probation, and people convicted elsewhere whose offense DPS finds substantially similar; the duty has reached back to convictions since September 1, 1970 since 2005.
- How long: for life after a sexually violent offense and the other listed lifetime offenses, otherwise until the tenth anniversary of discharge from the sentence, with verification yearly, every 90 days for two or more sexually violent offenses and every 30 days for the civilly committed.
- Risk levels: level one low, level two moderate and level three high, assigned by a screening tool at release or sentencing, plus civil commitment for sexually violent predators under the Texas Civil Commitment Office; high risk and civilly committed offenders bring a postcard notice to every address within a mile or three blocks.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Texas's own systems: the Texas Department of Public Safety Public Sex Offender Website, the website's registry search, the website's address search, the website's subscription service, the Texas Sex Offender Registration Program FAQ, the website's Social Networking and Online Identifiers page, the DPS table of Texas registration periods against federal law, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who registers and with whom
The program's questions page traces the law from September 1, 1991, amended every session since: on September 1, 1997 registration reached back to reportable convictions since September 1, 1970 for anyone still in the Texas system, and on September 1, 2005 to every such conviction regardless. A reportable conviction or adjudication under article 62.001(5), whether or not under appeal and including a deferred adjudication or a juvenile adjudication, covers continuous sexual abuse of a child, bestiality, indecency with a child, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and prohibited sexual conduct; aggravated promotion of prostitution, compelling prostitution, sexual performance by a child and child pornography; prostitution punishable under section 43.02(c-1)(2); aggravated kidnapping with intent to violate or abuse the victim sexually; burglary of a habitation with intent to commit one of those felonies; unlawful restraint, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping with a finding that the victim was under 17; a second indecent exposure unless it ends in deferred adjudication; attempts, conspiracies and solicitations; online solicitation of a minor; trafficking of persons under section 20A.02(a)(3), (4), (7) or (8) and continuous trafficking based on that conduct; and convictions under another state's, federal, foreign or military law for substantially similar offenses, as DPS decides, though a deferred adjudication elsewhere does not count.
People from other states, federal court, the military or abroad register if they live, work or attend school in Texas, a nonresident only while working or studying here, and an extrajurisdictional registrant whose offense DPS finds dissimilar still registers if the convicting law requires it, with reviews requested at txsor@dps.texas.gov. The registrant reports to the chief of police of the municipality of residence, or the sheriff outside one, by the seventh day after arriving or the first day the agency allows, and that agency becomes the primary registration authority, keeping the record, notifying schools where required and sending everything to DPS; it collects the full name, birth date, sex, race, height, weight, eye and hair color, Social Security and driver license numbers, shoe size, home address or a description of where the person stays, aliases, phone numbers, a color photograph and fingerprints, the offense, victim's age, conviction date and punishment, supervision status, professional licenses, any college employment or enrollment, every online identifier, and for trafficking offenders the make, model, VIN, color and plate of every vehicle.
How long, how often, and the risk level
Adults register for life or for ten years. Lifetime registration follows a sexually violent offense, defined for anyone 17 or older as continuous sexual abuse of a child, indecency with a child by contact, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, sexual performance by a child, aggravated kidnapping with sexual intent, burglary of a habitation with intent to commit one of those crimes and substantially similar offenses elsewhere, and also follows trafficking of persons, prohibited sexual conduct, compelling prostitution of a minor, child pornography, continuous trafficking, indecency by exposure or a restraint or kidnapping offense against a child under 17 when the person has another reportable conviction, and obscenity enhanced for depicting a child.
Everyone else registers until the tenth anniversary of the latest of the court's dismissal and discharge, release from a penal institution or discharge from community supervision; a juvenile adjudicated delinquent until the tenth anniversary of the disposition or its completion; and an extrajurisdictional registrant for as long as the foreign, federal or military law would have required. Verification is in person with the primary registration authority once a year, once in each 90 day period for a person with two or more sexually violent offenses, and once in each 30 day period for a person civilly committed as a sexually violent predator.
A numeric risk level is assigned on release from a penal institution or placement on supervision by the screening tool of the Risk Assessment Review Committee under the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, through the department, the Juvenile Justice Department or a court: level one low, a low danger unlikely to engage in criminal sexual conduct; level two moderate, who may continue; and level three high, a serious danger who will continue; a court's civil commitment of a sexually violent predator with a mental abnormality is shown as a fourth level, managed by the Texas Civil Commitment Office.
The numeric level is distinct from the individual risk assessment, a series of evaluations by a deregistration specialist licensed by the Council on Sex Offender Treatment, certified by the council before a motion for early termination can be filed. The DPS table of September 2022 compares each Texas period with the federal minimum under 34 U.S.C. 20911, 15 years for tier I, 25 for tier II and life for tier III: a person with a single reportable offense whose Texas period is longer than the federal one may apply to the council for the assessment under article 62.403(b) and then move the convicting court under article 62.404, while a second offense or an equal federal period closes that door; sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, indecency by contact with a child under 13 and continuous sexual abuse of a child under 13 are tier III and lifetime both ways, while, for example, a first indecency by exposure is lifetime in Texas against 15 years federally and unlawful restraint of a child is post 10 against 15.
What the registrant must report, and the online identifiers
A registrant reports an intended move in person to the primary registration authority at least seven days before it and then, within seven days of arriving at a new Texas address, in person to the new municipality's or county's agency with proof of identity and residence; a move out of state is reported seven days ahead and the person registers with the receiving state's designated agency within ten days of arrival. Any change in online identifiers, name, physical health, job status or education is reported within seven days, as is starting or ending work or enrollment at a college, to both the campus security authority and the registration authority.
A registrant who spends more than 48 consecutive hours in another municipality or county on three occasions in a month reports to that place's agency with the full registration information, the addresses stayed at and whether a return is intended. The program does not bar registrants from the internet or social networking sites, though probation and parole conditions may, but under the online identifiers page every email address and every name used for instant messages, chat, social networking or photo sharing, including nicknames and user names, goes to the registration authority at registration and within seven days of any change, and DPS holds it in the registry; the public may not see it, but commercial social networking sites may obtain it under the site operator terms. Failing any requirement of the program is a felony.
How the community is told
Public information is released by DPS, penal institutions, local agencies and campus security with immunity, and the DPS database is open to anyone at any time on the website. When DPS learns that a civilly committed or high risk offender is to be released into a community or intends to move, it mails or delivers a postcard in English and Spanish to every address, except post office boxes, within a one mile radius where land is unsubdivided or a three block area where it is subdivided.
Local agencies may publish high risk offenders in a newspaper, periodical or circular, and must notify the superintendent of the public school district and the administrators of private schools when a registrant whose victim was under 17 or a student, who is a student, or who registered for sexual performance by a child or child pornography lives in the district, with prohibited sexual conduct offenders excluded. The public site itself is available for anyone to check at any time, and a registrant who dies is removed when the local registering agency receives proof of death.
Where registrants may live and work
The registration law itself sets no residence restriction except that a registrant may not live on a college campus unless assessed low risk under article 62.007 and approved by the institution; child safety zones keeping a person away from schools, day cares and playgrounds come from probation and parole conditions, which end with supervision, and from city ordinances, which section 341.906 of the Local Government Code lets a general law municipality adopt within limits and with an exemption procedure.
A registrant who enters any school during operating hours immediately tells the office of the presence and status, unless an enrolled student, a visiting student at an event or a person with a written exemption, and the office may assign a chaperon. The program does not bar registrants from trades or professions, though a licensing law may, and since September 1, 2013 a person with a sexually violent offense and a finding that the victim was under 14 may not operate a bus, offer taxi or limousine service, provide unsupervised services in a residence or operate an amusement ride under article 62.063.
An adult may ask the court for an exemption only for indecency with a child or sexual assault where the victim was at least 15, the offender no more than four years older and the conduct consensual; a juvenile may ask the court for an exemption or a nonpublic order; and a person whose duty has expired asks the agency that last updated the record, named on the public record, for removal, with the charging instrument, judgment and proof of discharge, the Texas and national criminal histories showing complete dispositions, and a discharge order, release certificate or supervising officer's letter to set the ending date.
Reading a Texas result
A record means a registration submitted by the Department of Criminal Justice, the Juvenile Justice Department or a local agency, with the verification agency named on it, the risk level assigned at release and the offense of registration; it is not proof of identity, which only fingerprints give, and its absence can mean a judicial order, a juvenile nonpublic order or an expired duty. The duration follows the offense, lifetime or ten years after discharge, the postcard follows only the high risk and the civilly committed, and the subscription service carries every later change to anyone who signs up.
Questions about the Texas sex offender registry
Related Texas records
The registry is one of the Texas records this site covers: the Texas arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the inmate search guide covers the TDCJ offender search, the background check guide covers the DPS criminal history search, and the Texas county pages list each sheriff and police department.