Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2025. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Bay City, Texas, in Matagorda County, has about 17,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the Matagorda County District Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Bay City public records, Matagorda County arrest records, Texas arrest records and Texas inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Bay City
The FBI lists Bay City with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Bay City Police Department. It reported 492 arrests for 2025. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 220 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Matagorda County: the Bay City Independent School District, the Matagorda County Constable's Precincts 6, 1, 4, 3 and 2 and the Van Vleck Independent School District (other).
How Many Arrests Bay City Reports
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- Bay City: 492 for 2025, 596 for 2024, 521 for 2023, 574 for 2022, 667 for 2021 and 679 for 2020.
Bay City's 492 arrests in 2025 were down 17 percent from 596 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Bay City reported 305 arrests, against 322 in the same months of 2025.
Across Matagorda County, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 780 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bay City Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Bay City and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.
So far in 2026 the jail has held about 120 people on an average day, up from about 96 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 192 beds, and it is running at 65 percent of it. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office at matagordatx.gov/page/Sheriff (page title: Sheriff's Office | Matagorda County, Texas), phone 979-245-5526, 2308 Avenue F Bay City, TX 77414, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Texas Department of Criminal Justice lists its inmates at inmate.tdcj.texas.gov/InmateSearch/start.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Bay City
Whether someone was arrested in Bay City, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Matagorda County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at matagordatx.gov/page/County.Clerk, phone (979) 244-7680); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at matagordatx.gov/page/District.Attorney, phone (979) 244-7657).
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. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Bay City
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Texas Public Information Act the agency must answer within 10 business days, and it may charge the copy rates set by the Attorney General, plus labor for large requests.
- An arrest by the Bay City police: the police records page SearchSystems verified at baycitytx.gov/402/Open-Records (page title: Public Information | Open Records Requests | Bay City, TX), phone 979-245-8500, 2201 Avenue H Bay City, TX 77414, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 25, 2026.
- An arrest by the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 979-245-5526.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (979) 244-7657, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Matagorda County District Court, through the court records page at matagordatx.gov/page/County.Clerk, phone (979) 244-7680.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
The Matagorda County guide covers every agency in the county: Matagorda County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bay City each year?
Bay City reported 492 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Bay City?
Ask the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office at 979-245-5526; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at matagordatx.gov/page/Sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Bay City booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bay City?
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.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Bay City?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bay City police for its own arrests, the Matagorda County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Texas Public Information Act the answer is due within 10 business days.
Is this the official Bay City 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.