Dallas County, Texas Public Records

Booking photos are kept by the agency that made the arrest, such as the Dallas County Sheriff's Office or a city police department in Dallas County. Ask that agency for its record. Texas Business and Commerce Code chapter 109 covers businesses that publish criminal record information, arrest photographs included, taken from public records or bought from DPS and that charge $150 or more to remove it or any fee to correct it; they must keep it complete and accurate and may not publish records they know are expunged or under an order of nondisclosure.

The Texas criminal history record comes from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Crime Records as the Criminal History Conviction Name Search of public conviction and deferred adjudication records, or as a fingerprint based record of yourself through a FAST location. Dallas County adds two local checks. The Dallas County Courts Portal, linked above, searches felony and misdemeanor cases by name without charge, with case information back to 1975. The Sheriff's Office issues a county clearance letter for $35 at Room C-15 of the Frank Crowley Courts Building, 133 North Riverfront Boulevard, on two forms of identification, ready in 48 hours; it covers Dallas County records only, and the Sheriff points anyone needing a statewide check to the Department of Public Safety.

Search the Texas Department of Public Safety Sex Offender Registry for every registration forwarded by the local agencies, or every state at once on the National Sex Offender Public Website run by the U.S. Department of Justice. In Dallas County the registering agency is the police department of the city where the offender lives: inside the City of Dallas it is the Dallas Police Department's Sex Offender Registration squad at 1400 Botham Jean Boulevard, (214) 671-3689, and in the unincorporated areas the Sheriff's Sex Offender Registration and Compliance Unit at Room 1C100 of the Frank Crowley Courts Building, (214) 653-3495, which also offers an address based alert through its contracted registry service.

Register with the Dallas County Elections Department, 1520 Round Table Drive, Dallas, TX 75247, (469) 627-8683, or through the Texas Secretary of State, Elections Division and its application. Texas has no online voter registration: print the application from the department's registration page, linked above, sign it and mail it, pick one up at a county tax office or library, or register in person at the department on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The registrar must receive the application at least 30 days before the election, and you must be a United States citizen, a Dallas County resident and at least 17 years and 10 months old to apply.

Deeds and every other recorded land document in Dallas County are kept by the County Clerk's Recording Division at 500 Elm Street, Suite 2100, and searched in its Official Public Records Search, linked above, by name, subdivision, document type or number. Property values are set by the Dallas Central Appraisal District, 2949 North Stemmons Freeway, whose searches by owner, address, account and business name and its parcel map are linked above; the appraisal district itself says title research belongs at the County Clerk. Tax bills come from the Dallas County Tax Assessor/Collector at the Records Building, Suite 3300, whose lookup and payment application shows each account. The Texas Comptroller's county directory explains how the three offices divide the work in every Texas county.

For a birth or death inside the Dallas city limits, from the City of Dallas Bureau of Vital Statistics at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young Street, (214) 670-3092, $23 for a birth certificate and $21 for a death certificate. For a birth or death in any of the other 31 cities of the county, from the County Clerk's Vital Records Division at 500 Elm Street, Suite 2100, (214) 653-7099, $23 for a birth certificate, $21 for the first death certificate and $4 for each additional copy, issued while you wait in person or in two to four weeks by mail with a notarized copy of your identification. Statewide, certified copies also come from the Texas Department of State Health Services, Vital Statistics online through Texas.gov, by mail or in person in Austin, $22 for a birth certificate and $20 for a death certificate.

Business entity filings are searched with the Texas Secretary of State, Business and Public Filings system. In Dallas County an unincorporated business trading under an assumed name files its DBA certificate with the County Clerk's Recording Division, $23 plus 50 cents for each further owner, and the certificates are searched in the Official Public Records Search linked above; corporations and LLCs have filed their assumed names with the Secretary of State alone since September 1, 2019. Texas requires no general business license and neither does the City of Dallas, but a business occupying a building inside the city needs a certificate of occupancy from Planning and Development through DallasNow, and licensed trades are checked in the TDLR license search among the state sources.

In the Dallas County Courts Portal, linked among the court sources above, which the District Clerk and the County Clerk share; no registration is needed, and Smart Search takes a name or a case number across civil, probate, felony and misdemeanor cases, with documents for most civil cases filed after 2008 and most felony cases filed after 2009. Family cases show case information only, so divorce and custody documents are requested from the District Clerk's Civil and Family Records Desk in the basement of the George Allen Courts Building, 600 Commerce Street, (214) 653-6076, or by email with the records request form. Felony copies come from the Felony Records Desk on the second floor of the Frank Crowley Courts Building, (214) 653-5950, misdemeanor copies from the County Clerk across the hall.

Use the Sheriff's Jail Lookup search, linked above, or call the jail information line, (214) 761-9025, which answers 24 hours a day. Everyone held in the county is at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, 111 West Commerce Street, in the North Tower, the West Tower or the Suzanne Lee Kays Detention Facility, whichever agency made the arrest. Bonds are posted in person at the bond desk there at any hour, in cash, cashier's check or money order payable to Dallas County; the Sheriff warns against anyone asking for bond money through a cash app. For a warrant, call (214) 761-9026.

From the department that wrote it. The Dallas Police Department's Records Section at 1400 Botham Jean Boulevard releases accident reports for $6 and offense reports for 10 cents a page at its window or 50 cents by mail, usually five to seven working days after an accident, with the report information line on (214) 671-3345; only the first page of an offense or arrest report is released. Since October 21, 2026 the department's open records requests are handled by the City Secretary's Office through the city Open Records Center, linked above. A report written by the Sheriff's Office is requested at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, 133 North Riverfront Boulevard, and the police departments of Irving, Garland, Mesquite and the other cities release their own.

From the County Clerk's Recording Division, which has recorded Dallas County deeds since the county was organized in 1846. Find the document in the Official Public Records Search linked above, by grantor or grantee name, subdivision, document type or number; the search gives a non-certified copy, and a certified electronic copy with the clerk's digital signature is bought online at any hour. At the counter, 500 Elm Street, Suite 2100, open weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., a plain copy is $1 a page and a certified copy $1 a page plus $5 a document, paid in cash, money order, cashier's check, business check or card; personal checks are not accepted. Historical deed books are held by the Central Records Division at 600 Commerce Street, B-1.

Complete the application online on the County Clerk's marriage license page, linked above, note the order number and bring it with identification to the Vital Records Division at 500 Elm Street, Suite 2100, or to the Justice of the Peace offices at the South Dallas, North Dallas or Grand Prairie government centers. The license costs $80, or $21 with a Twogether in Texas premarital course certificate, which also waives the 72 hour waiting period; it expires if no ceremony is held within 90 days. An informal marriage certificate is $46 and a certified copy of a marriage record $10. An applicant serving overseas in the armed forces may be absent on an affidavit; everyone else must appear.

Through the county's GovQA Public Records Center, linked above, which routes a written request to the department that holds the record and lets you track it, with its own queues for the Commissioners Court, the Sheriff's Office, the County Treasurer, the County Clerk, the District Attorney, the Tax Office and the Constables and instructions for the justice courts and the District Clerk. The Open Records office at 500 Elm Street, Suite 7600, (214) 653-7327, is the county's officer for public information under Chapter 552 of the Government Code. The County Clerk also takes requests by email at CC-Inquiry@dallascounty.org and the District Attorney at DA_PIA_Request@dallascounty.org. If the county means to withhold anything it must ask the Attorney General for a ruling and tell you by the tenth business day.

Civil, family and probate cases and the county courts at law sit at the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building, 600 Commerce Street; every criminal case, felony or misdemeanor, at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, 133 North Riverfront Boulevard; juvenile cases at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center, 2600 Lone Star Drive. Small claims, evictions, debt claims and traffic tickets go to one of the ten Justice of the Peace courts in the county government centers in South Dallas, Garland, Mesquite, North Dallas, Grand Prairie, East Dallas and Oak Cliff, by precinct; the county's district map, linked from the Justice of the Peace page above, tells you which. All of the addresses are listed above.

Autopsy reports are public information in Texas, and the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at 2355 North Stemmons Freeway releases them on a written request to its records office, (214) 920-5921 or swifs.reports@dallascounty.org, using the request form linked above. A report is usually complete 60 to 90 days after the death; a notarized copy costs $15, a plain copy $5 and case records 10 cents a page, paid in exact cash, check or money order, never by card, under the institute's own answers page. The District Attorney may ask the Attorney General to withhold a report that would interfere with a prosecution, and reports on inquests ordered by a justice of the peace outside the county are released only with that justice's approval. The death certificate itself comes from the funeral home or the vital records office, not from the medical examiner.

In Texas only cities issue zoning and building permits, so a permit depends on which of the 31 cities the property sits in. Inside the City of Dallas every permit, inspection and certificate of occupancy runs through DallasNow, the city's land management portal linked above, with a call center on (214) 948-4480; Garland, Irving, Mesquite and the other cities use their own building departments. Only the unincorporated area, less than a tenth of the county's land and mostly in its southeastern corner, is permitted by the county's Unincorporated Area Services through its MyGov portal, (214) 653-6565, and most of that land lies in the floodplain, so a development permit comes before anything else.

The Dallas Central Appraisal District lists the owner of record for every parcel in the county: search by owner name, address, account number or business name on its site, linked above, or click the parcel on its property map, and the appraisal data is refreshed nightly. The deed that made that person the owner is in the County Clerk's Official Public Records Search, also linked above, by grantor or grantee name, and the Tax Assessor/Collector's payment application shows the certified owner on the tax account. The appraisal district's own notice says title research belongs at the County Clerk, whose records are the legal ones.

On the Elections Department's voter lookup, linked among the sources above, or its check your registration page, which read your status, precinct and districts from the county voter file; the department's contact page carries the same lookup. A move within the county is reported through the Texas Secretary of State's online change of address tool, and a new registration must reach the department 30 days before an election. The registration line is (214) 819-6388 and the office at 1520 Round Table Drive is open weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Federal civil and criminal cases for Dallas County are filed in the Dallas Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas at the Earle Cabell Federal Building, 1100 Commerce Street, Room 1452, open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 214-753-2200; dockets and documents are on PACER through ECF, and the clerk takes an online record request for paper files. Bankruptcy cases are filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in Room 1254 of the same building, which also takes the filings of the Wichita Falls division. Appeals go to the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans; the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas, linked above, is the state appellate court.

Each of the 31 cities keeps its own: the city secretary holds the council minutes, ordinances and contracts, the city police department its reports and arrests, and the city building department its permits, so a Garland police report comes from Garland and an Irving permit from Irving. The City of Dallas also registers its own births and deaths at the Bureau of Vital Statistics, which no other city in the county does. Courts, deeds, the records of the other cities' births and deaths, voter registration, property appraisal and jail custody stay with the county for every city. The county's own list of its cities, linked above, opens each city's site, and the city pages linked below carry each city's offices.