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 September 23, 2026 and October 9, 2026.
Smith County, Texas, has about 249,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Smith County Sheriff's Office, six city agencies and 11 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 Smith 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: Smith County public records, Texas arrest records, Texas inmate search and Texas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Smith County
The Smith County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Smith County. It reported 1,516 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists six cities in Smith County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Tyler, 112,219 residents: 3,677 arrests reported for 2025.
- Whitehouse, 9,781 residents: 59 arrests reported for 2025.
- Lindale, 7,227 residents: 105 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bullard, 5,070 residents: 36 arrests reported for 2025.
- Troup, 2,141 residents: 55 arrests reported for 2025.
- Arp, 987 residents: 45 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 Overton Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Smith County, so its arrests are not broken out for Smith County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Smith County: the Smith County Constable's Precincts 4, 2, 3 and 5, the Chapel Hill Independent School District, the Tyler Independent School District, the Lindale Independent School District and two more (other); Tyler Junior College and the University of Texas at Tyler (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Smith 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.
- Tyler: 3,677 for 2025, 3,568 for 2023, 3,470 for 2022, 3,596 for 2021, 3,187 for 2020 and 3,869 for 2019; 2024 is missing months.
- Smith County Sheriff's Office: 1,516 for 2025, 1,553 for 2024, 1,650 for 2023, 1,160 for 2022, 1,096 for 2021 and 2,354 for 2020.
- Lindale: 105 for 2025, 93 for 2024, 95 for 2023, 97 for 2022, 134 for 2021 and 135 for 2020.
- Whitehouse: 59 for 2025, 58 for 2024, 61 for 2023, 62 for 2022, 67 for 2021 and 90 for 2020.
- Troup: 55 for 2025, 54 for 2020 and 105 for 2019; 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Arp: 45 for 2025, 59 for 2024, 36 for 2023, 33 for 2022, 23 for 2021 and 13 for 2020.
- Bullard: 36 for 2025, 48 for 2024, 37 for 2023, 40 for 2022, 71 for 2021 and 66 for 2020.
Together, the seven agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,493 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,761 in 2025 against 1,811 in 2024, down 2.8 percent.
Through August 2026, the seven agencies with every month so far on file reported 3,130 arrests, against 3,851 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Smith County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Smith 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 880 people on an average day, up from about 860 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 1,149 beds, and it is running at 76 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 Smith County Sheriff's Office at smith-county.com/m/directory/department?did=94 (page title: Staff Directory, Sheriff's Office), phone 903-590-2661, 227 N Spring Avenue Tyler, TX 75702, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 2026.
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 Smith County
Whether someone was arrested in Smith County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Smith County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at smith.tx.publicsearch.us); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at smith-county.com/270/District-Attorney, phone 903-590-1720).
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 Smith 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 Smith County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 903-590-2661.
- An arrest in Tyler, Whitehouse, Lindale, Bullard, Troup or Arp: 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 Smith County Constable's Precincts 4, 2, 3 and 5, the Chapel Hill Independent School District or the Tyler Independent School District: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney, 903-590-1720, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Smith County District Court, through the court records page at smith.tx.publicsearch.us.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
The other Smith County guides go further: warrants, inmate search, police reports and property records.
Cities in Smith County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the ten cities in Smith County: Tyler, Whitehouse, Lindale, Bullard, Troup and Arp. Hideaway, Noonday, Winona and New Chapel Hill 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 Smith County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Smith 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 Smith County each year?
Tyler reported 3,677 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the seven agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,493 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Smith County?
Ask the Smith County Sheriff's Office at 903-590-2661; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at smith-county.com.
Where are people arrested in Smith County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Smith County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Smith 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 Smith County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Smith 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 Smith 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.