Reviewed and updated October 7, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest and crime counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 23, 2026 and October 1, 2026.
Houston, Texas, in Harris County, has about 2.4 million residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Texas the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the District Clerk for district court cases and the County Clerk for county court cases; the statewide criminal history kept by the Texas Department of Public Safety is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Houston is kept and how it is seen.
This guide covers the court file, the statewide record, local arrest records, the crimes behind the records, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Houston public records, Harris County public records, Houston warrants, Houston inmate search, Houston court records, Houston police reports, Texas arrest records and Texas inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Harris County District Court
In Texas the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Houston are heard by the Harris County District Court, which hears felonies, divorces, land title cases and civil cases without a dollar limit; the County Courts and Justice Courts take misdemeanors in the County Court or County Court at Law; traffic tickets, evictions and small claims in the Justice Courts, and the file of each case is kept by the District Clerk for district court cases and the County Clerk for county court cases.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at jpwebsite.harriscountytx.gov/FindMyCase/search.jsp (page title: Harris County JP Public Access -- Welcome), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026. That page belongs to a lower court, the County Courts and Justice Courts, not to the Harris County District Court.
Texas has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Texas Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Texas is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the Conviction Database search lets anyone look up convictions and deferred adjudications by name, for $3 a search, through the Texas Department of Public Safety. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it. The search is on the Texas Department of Public Safety site.
To see your own record, the route is a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at securesite.dps.texas.gov/dpswebsite/criminalhistory.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Houston
The Harris County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Houston (filed by the FBI as Houston Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Houston: the report and the booking record of each arrest stay with the agency that made it, separate from the court file and from the state repository.
The FBI's agency list also places 30 other agencies and 11 campus police departments in Harris County; each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Waller Police Department, the Stafford Police Department, the Missouri City Police Department and three more are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Harris County, so their arrests are not broken out for Harris County here.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Houston in 2025
The agency that reports for Houston had 21,345 violent and 92,382 property crimes reported for 2025; each one is a report on file with it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The District Attorney for Harris County
Charges in Harris County are filed by the District Attorney, which reviews the arrests of every agency in the county and brings the cases in the Harris County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at dao.harriscountytx.gov (page title: District Attorney’s Office), phone 713-274-5800, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Houston
Registered sex offenders living in Houston are listed on the Texas Public Sex Offender Registry, run by the Texas Department of Public Safety at dps.texas.gov. The registry is public and can be searched online.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the sheriff's office, or the city police in a city with its own department.
Asking an Agency in Harris County for a Record
An arrest report, a booking record or a local criminal history letter comes from the agency that holds it, not from the court.
Under the Texas Public Information Act a county office must answer a request within 10 business days, and it may charge the copy rates set by the Attorney General, plus labor for large requests.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Harris County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Harris County and Texas. These criminal records pages from its Harris County listing were opened again on October 1, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Crime Records Services (dps.texas.gov)
- Index-Harris County Texas Sheriff's Office (harriscountyso.org)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Houston?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Texas Department of Public Safety: the Conviction Database search lets anyone look up convictions and deferred adjudications by name, for $3. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Texas Public Information Act.
Can I search Houston criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at jpwebsite.harriscountytx.gov (page title: Harris County JP Public Access -- Welcome); it belongs to a lower court, not to the Harris County District Court.
How do I get my own Texas criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Who prosecutes crimes in Houston?
The District Attorney, reached at 713-274-5800, which files its cases in the Harris County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts.
Is this the official Houston website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.