Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. 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 on September 23, 2026.
Bell County, Texas, has about 400,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Bell County Sheriff's Office, ten city agencies and five campus, state or other agencies. An arrest 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 Bell County District Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts each agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Bell County public records, Texas arrest records, Texas inmate search and Texas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Bell County
The Bell County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Bell County. It reported 616 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside ten of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Killeen, 160,616 residents: 3,226 arrests reported for 2025.
- Temple, 96,267 residents: 2,901 arrests reported for 2024.
- Harker Heights, 35,263 residents: 867 arrests reported for 2025.
- Belton, 25,635 residents: 1,116 arrests reported for 2024.
- Nolanville, 7,395 residents: 56 arrests reported for 2024.
- Morgan's Point Resort, 4,771 residents: 189 arrests reported for 2024.
- Troy, 3,427 residents: 49 arrests reported for 2024.
- Salado, 2,483 residents: 11 arrests reported for 2024.
- Holland, 1,129 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
- Rogers, 1,099 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2023.
A city on that list is reported separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
The Bartlett Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Bell County, so its arrests are not broken out for Bell County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Bell County: Texas A&M University at Central Texas, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Central Texas College (campus police); the Salado Independent School District and the Killeen Independent School District (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Bell County
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.
- Temple: 2,901 for 2024, 2,577 for 2023, 2,416 for 2022, 2,483 for 2021, 2,215 for 2020 and 2,668 for 2019.
- Killeen: 3,226 for 2025, 2,671 for 2024, 2,595 for 2023, 3,041 for 2022, 2,972 for 2021 and 2,889 for 2020.
- Belton: 1,116 for 2024, 1,081 for 2023, 967 for 2022, 956 for 2021, 1,367 for 2020 and 1,639 for 2019.
- Harker Heights: 867 for 2025, 934 for 2024, 891 for 2023, 705 for 2022, 496 for 2021 and 404 for 2020.
- Bell County Sheriff's Office: 616 for 2025, 526 for 2024, 592 for 2023, 654 for 2022, 675 for 2021 and 552 for 2020.
- Morgan's Point Resort: 189 for 2024, 59 for 2023, 47 for 2022, 27 for 2021, 26 for 2020 and 90 for 2019.
- Nolanville: 56 for 2024, 50 for 2023, 70 for 2021 and 175 for 2019; 2020 and 2022 are missing months.
- Troy: 49 for 2024, 169 for 2020 and 68 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing months.
- Salado: 11 for 2024, 1 for 2023, 5 for 2022, 6 for 2021, 8 for 2020 and 24 for 2019.
- Holland: 0 for 2025 and 6 for 2024.
- Rogers: 0 for 2023, 0 for 2022 and 1 for 2021.
Together, the ten agencies with all twelve months of 2024 on file reported 8,459 arrests that year. The eight of them with both 2024 and 2023 complete reported 8,404 in 2024 against 7,846 in 2023, up 7.1 percent.
Rogers reported only part of 2024 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Bell County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Bell County 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 1,220 people on an average day, up from about 870 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,955 beds, and it is running at 62 percent of it. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, whose inmate locator is at inmate.tdcj.texas.gov/InmateSearch/start.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Bell County
Whether someone was arrested in Bell County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Bell County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at bellcountytx.com/how_do_i/search_court_hearings_and_court_records.php, phone (254) 933-5161); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at bellcountytx.com/county_government/district_attorney/index.php, phone (254) 933-5215).
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 Bell County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 Bell County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Killeen, Temple, Harker Heights, Belton, Nolanville, Morgan's Point Resort or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by Texas A&M University at Central Texas, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor or Central Texas College: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (254) 933-5215, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Bell County District Court, through the court records page at bellcountytx.com, phone (254) 933-5161.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Bell County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for ten of the 11 cities in Bell County: Killeen, Temple, Harker Heights, Belton, Nolanville, Morgan's Point Resort, Troy, Salado, Holland and Rogers. Little River-Academy has no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Bell County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Bell County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Bell County each year?
Temple reported 2,901 arrests to the FBI for 2024, and the ten agencies with every month of 2024 on file reported 8,459 between them.
Where are people arrested in Bell County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Bell County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Bell County?
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 Bell County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Bell County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Texas Public Information Act the answer is due within 10 business days.
Is this the official Bell County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.