Travis County, Texas Criminal Records Search: Cases & Public Records

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Travis County, Texas official-records guide

Start with the court that actually holds the record

Travis County criminal records are split among several agencies. Felony cases are maintained through the Travis County District Clerk, Class A and B misdemeanors through the County Clerk, fine-only Class C cases may be in a Justice of the Peace or municipal court, and arrest, booking and warrant information may come from the Sheriff’s Office or the arresting police agency. Texas DPS provides a separate statewide criminal-history search.

Location: Travis County, Texas Main city: Austin Information checked: September 28, 2026
Fast route: search the Travis County Odyssey Portal for felony case information; use the County Clerk misdemeanor search for Class A/B misdemeanors; use TCSO inmate or warrant tools for current custody and warrant information; and use Texas DPS if you need qualifying statewide criminal-history information rather than a single Travis County case.
Felony case District Court records, case status, register of actions and felony copies.
District Clerk →
Misdemeanor case Class A/B cases and appealed Class C cases maintained by the County Clerk.
County Clerk →
Recent arrest / jail Check current Travis County custody and booking information.
TCSO →
Warrant search Use the Travis County Sheriff’s Office public warrant resource.
Warrants →
Statewide Texas history Public conviction/deferred-adjudication name search through Texas DPS.
Texas DPS →

Which Travis County office has the criminal record?

The word “criminal record” can describe several different records. Choosing the correct office is especially important in Travis County because felony and misdemeanor court records are maintained by different elected clerks.

Record needed Best official source What it covers
Felony court case Travis County District Clerk / Odyssey Adult felony district-court case information and eligible public records.
Class A or B misdemeanor Travis County Clerk County Courts at Law misdemeanor cases, including offenses such as DWI, theft and assault.
Appealed Class C misdemeanor Travis County Clerk Class C matters appealed from municipal or Justice of the Peace courts.
Original Class C / traffic case Justice of the Peace or municipal court Fine-only misdemeanors and many traffic citations.
Current county jail custody Travis County Sheriff’s Office People currently held in Travis County jail facilities.
Sheriff incident/arrest report TCSO Central Records / Open Records Public incident information and qualifying detailed law-enforcement records.
Austin Police report Austin Police Department APD incident reports and City of Austin public-information requests.
Statewide Texas criminal history Texas DPS Crime Records Division Qualifying public Texas conviction and deferred-adjudication history.
Federal criminal case PACER / Western District of Texas Federal criminal prosecutions separate from Travis County courts.
Arrest ≠ conviction. A jail booking, police arrest record or criminal charge does not establish guilt. Follow the matter into the appropriate court record and read the final disposition.

How to search Travis County felony criminal cases

Adult felony records are maintained by the Travis County District Clerk’s Criminal Division. Public users can search available district-court case information through the Travis County Odyssey Portal.

Open Travis County Odyssey Portal District Clerk Criminal Division

Open the Odyssey Portal

The general public can perform anonymous public searches without creating an elevated-access account.

Use Smart Search

Search using the person’s name or a known case/cause number. A cause number is normally the strongest way to isolate the correct case.

Open the case summary

Public users can review the available register of actions, which summarizes filings and events recorded in the case.

Check hearings separately if needed

Travis County also provides a criminal docket search for future settings using the arrested person’s name, attorney, judge/court or case number.

Request the actual document when the summary is not enough

Felony record-copy requests must go through the District Clerk’s records-request process.

Online coverage is not unlimited. The District Clerk’s current case-information page says its free online court-record portal includes criminal cases from 2008 to the present. The clerk separately warns that older felony material can be archived or unavailable through the public portal. Contact the Criminal Division for older files instead of assuming the record does not exist.

Travis County cause numbers can tell you what kind of case you found

The Travis County District Attorney publishes a useful local shortcut: felony and misdemeanor case numbers follow different patterns.

Felony

D-1-DC-…

Travis County felony cause numbers begin with D-1-DC. The number also identifies the filing year.

Example: D-1-DC-23-… identifies a felony case filed in 2023.

Misdemeanor

C…

Travis County’s District Attorney guidance says misdemeanor cause numbers begin with the letter C. Those cases are generally prosecuted through the County Attorney and maintained by the County Clerk.

Why this matters: if a search result begins with D-1-DC, use the District Clerk path. If it is a County Court misdemeanor case, use the County Clerk misdemeanor records system.

How to get felony copies or a certified Travis County felony search

Online case summaries are useful for research, but a government agency, attorney, immigration matter or records-correction request may require an actual copy or certified record.

Felony records office

District Clerk Criminal Division

Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center
Gault Annex
501 W. 11th St., Room 2.300
Austin, TX 78701

Phone: 512-854-9420, option 3
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Mail requests

Travis County District Clerk

Records Request
P.O. Box 679003
Austin, TX 78767

The District Clerk also provides an online Records Request form for official, certified and authenticated copies.

Service Current published fee Practical use
Records search $5 per cause/name or item searched Useful when you need the clerk to locate the official file.
Paper copy $1 per page Ordinary physical copy.
Certification $5 per document Added when an officially certified copy is required.
Exemplification $5 plus certified-copy cost Higher level of court authentication for specialized use.
Affidavit of No Record $5 Formal clerk document stating no qualifying record was found.
Need a Travis County felony background-search letter? The District Clerk says it can provide a certified positive or negative search letter covering Travis County felony criminal cases only. It is not a statewide Texas background check.

Class A and B misdemeanor records use the Travis County Clerk

Travis County’s seven County Courts at Law — Courts 3 through 9 — hear Class A and Class B misdemeanor cases. Examples listed by the County Clerk include DWI, theft and assault.

The Travis County Clerk Misdemeanor Records Division, rather than the District Clerk, maintains these records.

Search misdemeanor records
Misdemeanor office

Travis County Clerk

Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse
1000 Guadalupe St., Suite 222
Austin, TX 78701

Main phone: 512-854-9188
County Clerk hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Mail

Misdemeanor Records

Travis County Clerk
P.O. Box 149325
Austin, TX 78714

For a record search, provide the person’s full name, date of birth and any additional identifiers that can separate similar names.

How far back does the misdemeanor search go?

The County Clerk’s search page lists misdemeanor records from 1981 to the present for its record-search service. The same page notes that online data and document-image coverage vary by year and format, so an older result may require clerk assistance.

Do not expect every old document to be downloadable. Travis County’s misdemeanor system has broader index/case coverage than its online document-image collection. Paper and microfilm records can still require a clerk request.

Misdemeanor copy and search costs

Travis County Clerk offers several copy options depending on whether you need a quick unofficial reference copy or an authenticated record.

Service Published cost Important detail
Online document printed yourself Free Available online copies carry an unofficial-copy watermark.
Electronic document emailed by clerk $1 per page Uncertified copy.
Self-service photocopy $0.20 per page Made by the requester at the office.
Self-service microfilm/computer print $0.25 per page For records accessed through those systems.
Copy made by clerk $1 per page May be requested by phone, email or in person.
Certified copy $5 certification + $1 per page Use when official certification is required.
Misdemeanor search, 1981–present Free plus copy costs One name may include up to three aliases.
Misdemeanor search before 1981 $10 plus copy costs Additional aliases can generate additional search charges.
County-only means county-only. The County Clerk’s misdemeanor search covers qualifying Travis County Class A/B misdemeanor records and appealed Class C matters. It does not search every municipal, Justice Court, federal or out-of-county misdemeanor record.

Class C misdemeanors and traffic cases may be in a Justice Court

Travis County Justices of the Peace handle fine-only Class C criminal misdemeanor complaints, including many traffic citations and other fine-only offenses.

Travis County has five Justice of the Peace precincts. The county provides a public judicial-records resource for JP cases, including hearing information and past closed criminal cases.

Travis County Justice Courts
Not sure which precinct? Travis County says its Justice Court payment/search systems can locate traffic-ticket results across the other precincts, even when you are not certain which precinct received the case.

Austin Municipal Court handles another layer of local criminal cases

If the citation or charge was filed by the City of Austin as a low-level offense, check Austin Municipal Court rather than assuming it will appear in the County Clerk’s original misdemeanor records.

Austin Municipal Court handles the lowest-level Texas criminal offenses within its jurisdiction, including traffic cases, city ordinance cases and other Class C matters.

Search Austin Municipal Court case
Austin Municipal Court

Main courthouse

6800 Burleson Road
Building 310, Suite 175
Austin, TX 78744

Phone: 512-974-4800

Local search shortcut: if you have a City of Austin citation, begin with Austin Municipal Court. If it is a Class A/B misdemeanor prosecuted by Travis County, move to the County Clerk. For a felony, use the District Clerk.

How to find a Travis County criminal court date

Travis County maintains a separate Criminal Court Docket Search for future settings. You can search using:

  • arrested person’s name
  • attorney’s name
  • judge or court number
  • case/cause number
Search Travis County criminal dockets
Court settings can change. If appearing in court matters, verify the setting through the official docket system, your attorney or the court rather than relying on an old screenshot or third-party calendar.

How to find someone currently in a Travis County jail

Use the official Travis County Sheriff’s Office inmate search for people currently being held in Travis County custody.

TCSO inmate search

When an individual is arrested in Travis County, TCSO says the person is initially brought to the Central Booking Facility at the Travis County Jail.

Central booking

Travis County Jail

500 W. 10th St.
Austin, TX 78701

Jail information: 512-854-4180

Main correctional complex

Travis County Correctional Complex

3614 Bill Price Road
Del Valle, TX 78617

People can be moved from Central Booking to another county jail facility after intake. Always check the inmate search for the current housing location.

A booking record shows custody, not guilt. If you need to know what ultimately happened, follow the listed charge into the felony, misdemeanor or municipal court record.

How to request a Travis County Sheriff’s Office arrest or incident report

Sheriff’s Office reports are separate from court records. TCSO provides both a basic public incident-report process and a more detailed open-records process.

Public incident report

Basic public information

TCSO says the public portion includes information such as the offense type, date/time, responding officer and items reported stolen or damaged.

The basic public report does not contain the officer’s narrative.

Published cost: $0.10 per page.

Open records

Request more detailed records

To seek additional releasable information, submit a written Public Information Act request describing the records you want.

TCSO asks for the requester’s name, address and a detailed description of the records.

Travis County Sheriff’s Office — Records

5555 Airport Blvd.
Austin, TX 78751

Open-records information: 512-854-9718
In-person hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

TCSO open-records instructions
TCSO’s practical timeline: the Sheriff’s Office tells requesters that the Texas Public Information Act allows a 10-business-day period for its response process. Complex requests or records involving exceptions may take longer.

For an Austin Police arrest or incident, search APD separately

A large portion of Travis County’s population is within Austin, so many local police records originate with the Austin Police Department, not the Sheriff’s Office.

APD public incident-report database

APD provides a free public incident-report database that is updated daily. The current system covers reports from the present date back approximately 18 months.

You can search by geographic criteria or a known APD case number.

Search APD incident reports

Need an older or more complete APD record?

Use the City of Austin Public Records Center / Public Information Request process. APD records customer-service numbers are: 512-974-5212 and 512-974-5499.

Useful local workflow: for a recent Austin incident, try the free APD database first. If it is older than the online coverage period or you need material beyond the public report, submit a City of Austin public-information request.

Travis County has a public warrant-search resource

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office provides an online warrant-search page for public convenience.

Search Travis County warrants
Verify before relying on a warrant result. TCSO itself warns that it does not guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the public warrant data. Warrant status can change after arrest, recall, court appearance or other judicial action.

If the issue concerns you personally and requires action, verify the current status with the responsible court, law-enforcement agency or an attorney rather than relying on an unofficial warrant site.

Use Texas DPS for a statewide Texas criminal-history search

A Travis County court search answers a local court question. The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Crime Records Division provides a different service: a statewide public criminal-history name search for qualifying Texas conviction and deferred-adjudication information.

Texas DPS Criminal History Search

Create the required DPS account

The public search requires an account and search credits.

Purchase search credits

DPS currently prices public online search credits at $1 per search. Card purchases have an additional transaction/service charge.

Enter accurate identifiers

Use the full legal name and date of birth when known. DPS automatically tries additional name combinations to improve matching.

Verify the possible match

Texas DPS warns that name-based searches cannot positively prove identity. Fingerprint comparison is the strongest way to link an individual to a criminal-history record.

Do not call this a nationwide background check. Texas DPS criminal-history data concern records maintained through Texas criminal-justice reporting. Federal and other-state cases require separate searches.

County jail and Texas state-prison records are different searches

If a person is being held locally before trial or serving certain local custody, start with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office inmate search.

If the person has been transferred into the Texas state-prison system, use the Texas Department of Criminal Justice offender-information resources instead.

Texas state inmate search
No county-jail result? That does not necessarily mean the person is not incarcerated. The person may have been released, transferred to TDCJ, held in another county, or placed in federal custody.

Texas sex-offender records use a separate DPS registry

Texas DPS operates the official statewide public sex-offender registry. This is a specialized statutory registry and should not be treated as a general criminal-record database.

Texas DPS sex-offender search

Older Travis County criminal records may require an offline search

A major content gap on many criminal-record sites is the assumption that “not online” means “doesn’t exist.” That is especially risky with older cases.

Older felony

Contact the District Clerk

The current free District Clerk online-record page lists criminal portal coverage from 2008 forward. Older felony records may require an archive or clerk-assisted search.

Older misdemeanor

County Clerk paper / microfilm

Travis County Clerk offers searches of older misdemeanor records, including pre-1981 material that may require paid paper or microfilm research.

When you know an older case existed: call the correct clerk with the person’s full legal name, DOB, approximate case year and any known cause number. Those details can save a long manual search.

Expunction and nondisclosure can change what appears publicly

Texas law provides procedures that can remove qualifying records through expunction or restrict public visibility through an order of nondisclosure.

These remedies are not interchangeable:

Expunction

Removal of qualifying records

Texas law allows expunction in specified circumstances. Eligibility depends on the particular arrest, charge and disposition.

Nondisclosure

Restricted public visibility

An order of nondisclosure generally restricts qualifying information from public disclosure while allowing access for certain authorized agencies.

Travis County District Clerk’s Criminal Division maintains all expunctions, including misdemeanor and felony expunctions, and felony nondisclosure records. Misdemeanor nondisclosure matters also have a County Clerk process.

Texas State Law Library guidance
A missing public result does not prove an expunction occurred. The record may be archived, under another court, outside online coverage, confidential, juvenile, sealed or simply unavailable through that search system.

Federal criminal cases involving Travis County use the Western District of Texas

Travis County is assigned to the Austin Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Federal prosecutions will not appear simply because you search Travis County Odyssey, the County Clerk or Austin Municipal Court.

Search federal cases with PACER
Federal courthouse

U.S. District Court — Austin Division

501 W. 5th Street
Austin, TX 78701

PACER is the federal judiciary’s official electronic court-record system. A federal criminal case is separate from Texas state and Travis County criminal records.

Where Travis County criminal court records are centered

Most felony court activity is centered at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center in downtown Austin. The building also houses several felony and County Court at Law courtrooms.

Criminal courthouse

Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center

509 W. 11th Street
Austin, TX 78701

Criminal Courts Administration: 512-854-9244

Visitors should expect courthouse security screening.

Felony records counter

District Clerk Criminal Division

Gault Annex
501 W. 11th Street
Room 2.300
Austin, TX 78701

Phone: 512-854-9420, option 3

The map loads lazily so it does not block the initial article render.

Travis County criminal-record search tips that save time

Tip 01

Read the cause-number prefix

D-1-DC points to a Travis County felony case. A misdemeanor cause number generally begins with C.

Tip 02

Do not use one clerk for everything

Felony = District Clerk. Class A/B misdemeanor = County Clerk. Class C = JP or municipal court unless appealed.

Tip 03

Recent Austin police case?

APD’s public report database can be faster than filing a broad records request when the incident falls inside its approximately 18-month coverage window.

Tip 04

Recent arrest? Search jail first

Current custody information can help you identify whether a case is still in the booking stage and which charges were listed at intake.

Tip 05

Need proof of the outcome?

Ask for the disposition, judgment or certified final record rather than requesting an undefined “background check.”

Tip 06

Search aliases carefully

Middle names, maiden names and aliases matter, especially for older misdemeanor searches. Always use DOB when the system or clerk allows it.

Tip 07

Older record? Call the clerk

Online coverage has date limits. Archived, paper and microfilm records may still exist.

Tip 08

Do not confuse DPS with Odyssey

Odyssey shows Travis County court information. DPS is a statewide criminal-history repository search.

Tip 09

Check federal separately

A federal case in Austin uses PACER and the Western District of Texas, not the Travis County portals.

How to interpret the result correctly

Record status What it tells you What not to assume
Arrest / booking The person entered law-enforcement custody. That the person was convicted.
Filed charge A criminal allegation was formally filed. That the allegation was proven.
Pending The matter has not reached a final disposition. That conviction is inevitable.
Dismissed The relevant charge/case was dismissed. That every related arrest record automatically disappeared.
Acquitted / not guilty The defendant was not convicted on the relevant charge after adjudication. That all related government records were automatically erased.
Convicted A judgment of guilt was entered. That every record remains publicly visible forever.
Nondisclosure / sealed Public access may be restricted under applicable law. That every authorized government agency loses access.

Frequently asked questions about Travis County criminal records

1. Where do I search Travis County felony criminal records?

Use the Travis County Odyssey Portal for available public felony case information. Felony records and copies are maintained by the Travis County District Clerk’s Criminal Division.

2. Where do I search Travis County misdemeanor records?

Class A and B misdemeanor records are maintained by the Travis County Clerk’s Misdemeanor Records Division. The County Clerk provides an online search-and-copy service.

3. How can I tell whether a Travis County case is a felony?

Travis County District Attorney guidance states that felony cause numbers begin with “D-1-DC.” Misdemeanor cause numbers generally begin with the letter “C.”

4. Can I search Travis County jail inmates online?

Yes. The Travis County Sheriff’s Office provides an official inmate search for people currently held in Travis County jail facilities.

5. Does Travis County have an online warrant search?

Yes. The Travis County Sheriff’s Office provides a public warrant-search page. TCSO advises users to verify information before relying on it because warrant data can change.

6. How do I get an Austin Police report?

For many recent incidents, first search the APD Incident Reports Database, which currently provides public report information for approximately the previous 18 months. For older or more detailed records, use the City of Austin Public Information Request process.

7. How much is a Travis County District Clerk criminal-record search?

The District Clerk’s current 2026 fee schedule lists a $5 records-search fee per cause, name or item searched. Paper copies are $1 per page and certification is $5 per document.

8. Are Travis County Class C misdemeanor cases in the County Clerk search?

Original fine-only Class C cases are generally handled by a Justice of the Peace or municipal court. The County Clerk’s misdemeanor search includes qualifying Class C cases appealed from those lower courts.

9. Is Texas DPS the same as a Travis County criminal case search?

No. Travis County systems provide local court information. Texas DPS maintains a separate statewide criminal-history repository and public name-search service.

10. Where do I search a federal criminal case from Travis County?

Use PACER. Travis County is in the Austin Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Official government resources

Editorial note: Criminal-Record.org is an independent informational resource and is not affiliated with Travis County, the City of Austin, Texas DPS or any court or law-enforcement agency. Online coverage, fees, public-record rules, court settings and agency procedures can change. Verify important information with the government office maintaining the original record. An arrest, booking or criminal charge should never be treated as proof of guilt.

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