Reviewed and updated October 11, 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 11, 2026.
Ellis County, Texas, has about 232,000 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 Ellis County 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 and common questions.
Related guides: Ellis County public records, Ellis County arrest records, Ellis County warrants, Ellis County inmate search, Ellis County court records, Texas arrest records and Texas inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Ellis County District Court
A criminal case from Ellis County is filed in the Ellis County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts, which take misdemeanors in the County Court or County Court at Law; traffic tickets, evictions and small claims in the Justice Courts, and the court file, kept by the District Clerk for district court cases and the County Clerk for county court cases, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at elliscountytx.gov/79/District-Clerk (page title: District Clerk | Ellis County, TX Official Website), phone 972-825-5091, 109 S Jackson St. Second Floor Waxahachie, TX 75165, Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 11, 2026.
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 Ellis County
The Ellis County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Waxahachie, Midlothian, Ennis, Red Oak, Ovilla, Ferris and six more cities keep the arrest records in Ellis County: 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 seven other agencies in Ellis County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Glenn Heights Police Department, the Cedar Hill Police Department, the Venus Police Department and two more are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Ellis County, so their arrests are not broken out for Ellis County here.
Together, the 13 agencies in Ellis County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,541 arrests to the FBI that year; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The agencies and their counts, year by year, are in Ellis County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Ellis County in 2025
The 13 agencies in Ellis County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 358 violent and 1,780 property crimes to the FBI that year; the 12 of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,135 crimes in 2025 against 2,793 in 2024. Each reported crime is a report on file with the agency that took it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The full crime section, agency by agency, is on the Ellis County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Ellis County
Charges in Ellis County are filed by the District Attorney, which reviews the arrests of every agency in the county and brings the cases in the Ellis County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at elliscountytx.gov/73/County-and-District-Attorney (page title: County and District Attorney | Ellis County, TX Official Website), phone 972-825-5035, 109 S Jackson St. Waxahachie, TX 75165, Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Ellis County
Registered sex offenders living in Ellis County 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 Ellis 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. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at elliscountytx.gov/1046/Open-RecordsPublic-Information-Requests (page title: Open Records/Public Information Requests | Ellis County, TX Official Website).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Ellis 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.
Can I search Ellis County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at elliscountytx.gov/79/District-Clerk (page title: District Clerk | Ellis County, TX Official Website).
How do I get my own Texas criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Who prosecutes crimes in Ellis County?
The District Attorney, reached at 972-825-5035, which files its cases in the Ellis County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts.
Is this the official Ellis 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.