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.
Sterling County, Texas, has about 1,400 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 Sterling 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, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Sterling County public records, Sterling County arrest records, Sterling County warrants, Sterling County inmate search, Sterling County court records, Texas arrest records and Texas inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Sterling County District Court
A criminal case from Sterling County is filed in the Sterling 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.
For Sterling County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at sterlingcotx.gov/page/District.Court (page title: 51st District Court | Sterling County, Tx), phone 325-378-5191, Monday to Thursday 8:00 am to 4:30 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 Sterling County
The Sterling County Sheriff's Office keeps the arrest records in Sterling 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 Sterling County Sheriff's Office reported 19 arrests to the FBI for 2025; 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 Sterling County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Sterling County in 2025
The one agency in Sterling County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 0 violent and 3 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3 crimes in 2025 against 3 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 Sterling County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Sterling County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Sterling County become charges and files them in the Sterling County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at sterlingcotx.gov/page/District.Attorney (page title: District Attorney | Sterling County, Tx), phone 325-659-6584, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 11, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Sterling County
Registered sex offenders living in Sterling 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 Sterling 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.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Sterling County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Sterling County and Texas. These criminal records pages from its Sterling County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Texas DPS, Crime Records (dps.texas.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Sterling 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 Sterling County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sterlingcotx.gov/page/District.Court (page title: 51st District Court | Sterling County, Tx).
How do I get my own Texas criminal history?
Through a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Who prosecutes crimes in Sterling County?
The District Attorney, reached at 325-659-6584, which files its cases in the Sterling County District Court or the County Courts and Justice Courts.
Is this the official Sterling 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.