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 26, 2026.
Port Isabel, Texas, in Cameron County, has about 5,200 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 Cameron 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: Port Isabel public records, Cameron County arrest records, Texas arrest records and Texas inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Port Isabel
The FBI lists Port Isabel with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Port Isabel Police Department. It reported 367 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 Cameron County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 919 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Cameron County: the Cameron County Constable's Precincts 5, 4, 1, 2 and 3, Cameron County Park Rangers, the Brownsville Independent School District, the Santa Rosa Independent School District and four more (other); Texas State Technical College at Harlingen (campus police).
How Many Arrests Port Isabel Reports
The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts 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.
- Port Isabel: 367 for 2025, 470 for 2024, 436 for 2022, 392 for 2021, 299 for 2020 and 390 for 2019; 2023 is missing months.
Port Isabel's 367 arrests in 2025 were down 22 percent from 470 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Port Isabel reported 267 arrests, against 236 in the same months of 2025.
Across Cameron County, the 14 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 9,358 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Port Isabel Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Port Isabel is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
So far in 2026 the jail has held about 1,450 people on an average day, up from about 1,180 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,746 beds, and it is running at 83 percent of it. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Cameron County Sheriff's Office at cameroncountytx.gov/incoming/inmates/site (page title: Cameron County Inmate List), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
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 Port Isabel
Whether someone was arrested in Port Isabel, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Cameron County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at cameroncountytx.gov/districtattorney).
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 Port Isabel
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 Port Isabel police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at myportisabel.com/164/Police (page title: Police | Port Isabel, TX), phone 956-943-2727, 110 W Hickman Street Port Isabel, TX 78578, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Cameron County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at cameroncountytx.nextrequest.com (page title: Public Information PortalNextRequest | Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
The Cameron County guide covers every agency in the county: Cameron County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Port Isabel each year?
Port Isabel reported 367 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Port Isabel?
Look on the custody page of the Cameron County Sheriff's Office at cameroncountytx.gov/incoming/inmates/site. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Port Isabel booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Cameron County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Port Isabel?
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 Port Isabel?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Port Isabel police for its own arrests, the Cameron County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the Texas Public Information Act the answer is due within 10 business days; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at cameroncountytx.nextrequest.com.
Is this the official Port Isabel 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.