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.
Ector County, Texas, has about 170,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Ector County Sheriff's Office, one city agency and four 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 Ector 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: Ector County public records, Texas arrest records, Texas inmate search and Texas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Ector County
The Ector County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Ector County. It reported 627 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Ector County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Odessa, 119,748 residents: 4,004 arrests reported for 2025.
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 FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Ector County: the University of Texas at Permian Basin and Odessa College (campus police); the Ector County Independent School District and the Ector County Hospital District (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Ector 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.
- Odessa: 4,004 for 2025, 3,524 for 2024, 4,251 for 2023, 4,988 for 2022, 5,125 for 2021 and 6,408 for 2020.
- Ector County Sheriff's Office: 627 for 2025, 462 for 2024, 641 for 2023, 555 for 2022, 3,186 for 2020 and 2,887 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,631 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 4,631 in 2025 against 3,986 in 2024, up 16 percent.
Through August 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 3,563 arrests, against 3,061 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Ector County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Ector 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 800 people on an average day, up from about 630 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,079 beds, and it is running at 74 percent of it. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
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 Ector County
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 Ector County
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 Ector County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Odessa: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the University of Texas at Permian Basin, the Ector County Independent School District or Odessa College: the records office of the agency involved.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Ector County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the two cities in Ector County: Odessa. Goldsmith 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 Ector County District Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Ector County each year?
Odessa reported 4,004 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 4,631 between them.
Where are people arrested in Ector County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Ector County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Ector 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 Ector County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Ector 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 Ector 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.