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 between October 1, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
McLennan County, Texas, has about 270,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the McLennan County Sheriff's Office, 14 city agencies and ten 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 McLennan 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: McLennan County public records, Texas arrest records, Texas inmate search and Texas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in McLennan County
The McLennan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for McLennan County. It reported 741 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists 14 cities in McLennan County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported, the largest twelve first; the rest are named in the cities section below:
- Waco, 146,608 residents: 3,640 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hewitt, 16,749 residents: 429 arrests reported for 2025.
- Robinson, 12,986 residents: 97 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bellmead, 10,607 residents: 713 arrests reported for 2025.
- Woodway, 9,686 residents: 82 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lacy-Lakeview, 7,262 residents: 278 arrests reported for 2025.
- McGregor, 6,161 residents: 36 arrests reported for 2020.
- West, 2,597 residents: 10 arrests reported for 2025.
- Beverly Hills, 1,847 residents: 162 arrests reported for 2025.
- Mart, 1,843 residents.
- Lorena, 1,794 residents: 33 arrests reported for 2025.
- Moody, 1,620 residents.
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 Valley Mills Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including McLennan County, so its arrests are not broken out for McLennan County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in McLennan County: the McLennan County Constable's Precinct 1, the Waco Independent School District, the West Independent School District, the Valley Mills Independent School District and three more (other); McLennan Community College, Texas State Technical College at Waco and Baylor University at Waco (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in McLennan 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.
- Waco: 3,640 for 2025, 4,030 for 2024, 4,151 for 2023, 4,037 for 2022, 3,846 for 2021 and 3,766 for 2020.
- Bellmead: 713 for 2025, 680 for 2024, 596 for 2023, 557 for 2022, 437 for 2021 and 607 for 2020.
- Hewitt: 429 for 2025, 324 for 2024, 341 for 2023, 486 for 2022, 389 for 2021 and 247 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Lacy-Lakeview: 278 for 2025, 293 for 2024, 247 for 2023, 206 for 2022, 240 for 2021 and 243 for 2020.
- Beverly Hills: 162 for 2025, 129 for 2024 and 114 for 2022; 2023 is missing months.
- Robinson: 97 for 2025, 120 for 2024, 108 for 2023, 110 for 2022, 100 for 2021 and 108 for 2020.
- Bruceville-Eddy: 93 for 2025, 67 for 2024, 25 for 2023, 51 for 2022, 56 for 2021 and 27 for 2020.
- Woodway: 82 for 2025, 193 for 2021, 106 for 2020 and 187 for 2019; 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Lorena: 33 for 2025, 84 for 2024, 67 for 2023, 44 for 2022, 55 for 2021 and 48 for 2020.
- West: 10 for 2025, 15 for 2024, 13 for 2023, 12 for 2022, 5 for 2021 and 6 for 2020.
- Riesel: 2 for 2025 and 0 for 2024.
- McLennan County Sheriff's Office: 741 for 2024, 861 for 2023, 873 for 2022, 659 for 2021, 717 for 2020 and 1,172 for 2019.
Together, the 11 agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,539 arrests that year. The ten of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,457 in 2025 against 5,742 in 2024, down 5 percent.
Through August 2026, the ten agencies with every month so far on file reported 3,510 arrests, against 3,822 in the same months of 2025.
McLennan County Sheriff's Office reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in McLennan County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in McLennan 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 1,410 people on an average day, up from about 1,340 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,774 beds, and it is running at 80 percent of it. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office at mclennan.gov/185/Sheriffs-Office (page title: Sheriff's Office | McLennan County, TX), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 429), so open it in a browser.
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 McLennan County
An arrest in McLennan County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the McLennan County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at mclennan.gov/166/County-Clerk, phone 254-759-5619); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at mclennan.gov/282/District-Attorney, phone 254-757-5084).
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 McLennan 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 McLennan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Waco, Hewitt, Robinson, Bellmead, Woodway, Lacy-Lakeview 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 the McLennan County Constable's Precinct 1, McLennan Community College or Texas State Technical College at Waco: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 254-757-5084, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the McLennan County District Court, through the court records page at mclennan.gov/166/County-Clerk, phone 254-759-5619.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at mclennan.gov/508/Request (page title: Request | McLennan County, TX).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in McLennan County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for 14 of the 19 cities in McLennan County: the twelve named above and Bruceville-Eddy and Riesel. Gholson, Crawford, Hallsburg, Leroy and Ross have 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 McLennan County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in McLennan 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 McLennan County each year?
Waco reported 3,640 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the 11 agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,539 between them.
Where are people arrested in McLennan County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the McLennan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in McLennan 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 McLennan County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the McLennan 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 mclennan.gov/508/Request.
Is this the official McLennan 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.