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.
Lubbock County, Texas, has about 327,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office, seven city agencies and nine 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 Lubbock 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: Lubbock County public records, Texas arrest records, Texas inmate search and Texas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lubbock County
The Lubbock County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lubbock County. It reported 427 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists seven cities in Lubbock County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Lubbock, 272,086 residents: 5,512 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wolfforth, 7,982 residents: 105 arrests reported for 2024.
- Slaton, 5,698 residents: 161 arrests reported for 2025.
- Shallowater, 2,972 residents: 10 arrests reported for 2025.
- Idalou, 2,117 residents: 16 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ransom Canyon, 1,180 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2025.
- New Deal, 748 residents: 0 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 Abernathy Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Lubbock County, so its arrests are not broken out for Lubbock County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Lubbock County: Lubbock County Water Control and Improvement District #1, Lubbock International Airport, the Lubbock County Constable's Precinct 1, the Idalou Independent School District and three more (other); Lubbock Christian University and Texas Tech University at Lubbock (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lubbock County
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.
- Lubbock: 5,512 for 2025, 5,966 for 2024, 6,503 for 2023, 6,262 for 2022, 6,267 for 2021 and 6,087 for 2020.
- Slaton: 161 for 2025, 82 for 2021 and 126 for 2020; 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Idalou: 16 for 2025, 8 for 2024, 13 for 2023, 19 for 2022, 94 for 2021 and 195 for 2020.
- Shallowater: 10 for 2025, 2 for 2024, 7 for 2023, 14 for 2022 and 4 for 2021.
- Ransom Canyon: 4 for 2025 and 1 for 2024.
- New Deal: 0 for 2025 and 0 for 2024.
- Lubbock County Sheriff's Office: 427 for 2024, 303 for 2023, 364 for 2022, 313 for 2021, 332 for 2020 and 410 for 2019.
- Wolfforth: 105 for 2024.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,703 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,542 in 2025 against 5,977 in 2024, down 7.3 percent.
Through August 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,670 arrests, against 3,885 in the same months of 2025.
Lubbock County Sheriff's Office and Wolfforth reported only part of 2025 (10 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lubbock County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lubbock County 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 1,270 people on an average day, down from about 1,270 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,530 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 Lubbock County Sheriff's Office at lubbocksheriff.com/active-jail-roster (page title: Active Jail Search | Lubbock County Sheriff's Office | Dedicated to Service), phone (806) 775-7009, 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 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 Lubbock County
Whether someone was arrested in Lubbock County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Lubbock 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 lubbockcounty.gov/department/index.php?structureid=13, phone (806) 775-1100).
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 Lubbock 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 Lubbock County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (806) 775-7009.
- An arrest in Lubbock, Wolfforth, Slaton, Shallowater, Idalou, Ransom Canyon 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 Lubbock County Water Control and Improvement District #1, Lubbock International Airport or Lubbock Christian University: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, (806) 775-1100, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lubbockcounty.gov (page title: Document Center | Public Information Request | Lubbock County, Texas).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Lubbock County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for seven of the eight cities in Lubbock County: Lubbock, Wolfforth, Slaton, Shallowater, Idalou, Ransom Canyon and New Deal. Buffalo Springs Lake 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 Lubbock County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Lubbock 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 Lubbock County each year?
Lubbock reported 5,512 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,703 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Lubbock County?
Look on the custody page of the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office at lubbocksheriff.com/active-jail-roster, or call (806) 775-7009. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Lubbock County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lubbock 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 Lubbock County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lubbock 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lubbockcounty.gov.
Is this the official Lubbock 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.