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 October 1, 2026.
Winkler County, Texas, has about 7,400 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Winkler County Sheriff's Office, two city agencies and one other agency. 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 Winkler 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: Winkler County public records, Texas arrest records, Texas inmate search and Texas criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Winkler County
The Winkler County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Winkler County. It reported 52 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists two cities in Winkler County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Kermit, 5,909 residents: 56 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wink, 878 residents: 11 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 FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Winkler County: the Wink-Loving Independent School District (other).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Winkler 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.
- Kermit: 56 for 2025, 88 for 2023, 169 for 2020 and 399 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Winkler County Sheriff's Office: 52 for 2025, 77 for 2024, 45 for 2023, 34 for 2022, 21 for 2021 and 14 for 2020.
- Wink: 11 for 2025, 9 for 2024, 2 for 2023, 3 for 2022 and 7 for 2021.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 119 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 63 in 2025 against 86 in 2024, down 27 percent.
Through March 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 28 arrests, against 20 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Winkler County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Winkler 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 60 people on an average day, down from about 83 in 2019. Its rated capacity is 101 beds, and it is running at 59 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 Winkler County Sheriff's Office at co.winkler.tx.us/209/Sheriff (page title: Sheriff | Winkler County, TX), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 429), so open it in a browser.
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 Winkler County
An arrest in Winkler County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Winkler County District Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at co.winkler.tx.us/201/District-Clerk, phone 432-586-3359); the District Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at co.winkler.tx.us/200/District-Attorney, phone 432-586-3700).
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 Winkler 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 Winkler County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Kermit or Wink: 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 Wink-Loving 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, 432-586-3700, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Winkler County District Court, through the court records page at co.winkler.tx.us/201/District-Clerk, phone 432-586-3359.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Department of Public Safety.
Cities in Winkler County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the two cities in Winkler County: Kermit and Wink.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Winkler County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Winkler County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Kermit (5,909)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Winkler County each year?
Kermit reported 56 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 119 between them.
Where are people arrested in Winkler County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Winkler County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Winkler 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 Winkler County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Winkler 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 Winkler 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.