Hood County Arrest Records

Hood County arrest records document legal apprehensions carried out by officers of the law in the county. A record is prepared whenever an officer of the Hood County Sheriff’s Office, or any of the police departments in the county, conducts an arrest. This arrest may happen because the arresting officer observed a crime while it was committed, was enforcing an arrest warrant, or was booking a suspect. Besides local law enforcement agencies, the Texas Highway Patrol may also arrest individuals in Hood County.

Hood County arrestees may be held at local jails in the county or in state or federal detention facilities depending on the arresting agencies detaining them. The arrest records of individuals detained at the county jail and local jails of the police departments are used to prepare Hood County court records when these arrestees are charged to court.

Are Arrest Records Public in Hood County?

Yes. Hood arrest records are available to the public in accordance with the Texas Public Information Act. However, sealed and expunged records are not accessible to the public. Local law enforcement cannot provide an arrest record that has been made confidential by a court order. Similarly, a Hood arrest record may be sealed by default if it falls into any of these categories:

• Juvenile records and other records stating the identities of minors
• Restricted records required for an ongoing investigation or court case
• Law enforcement and court documents identifying victims of abuse

What Do Public Arrest Records Contain?

An arrest record describes the apprehension of a named individual. Therefore, it must provide the name of, and other identifying details about, the arrestee. Other details provided in a Hood County arrest record include

• Mugshot of the individual arrested
• When and where the arrest occurred
• Identity of the officer of the law that made the arrest
• The Hood County law enforcement agency represented by the arresting officer
• Offense or arrest charge

Hood County Arrest Statistics

Annual arrest numbers for Hood County are provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety. In a recent publication from the agency, 1,810 arrests were recorded in Hood County in 2022. Inmate population and incarceration data for all the counties in the state are provided by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. This organization recorded the capacity of Hood County jail as 192. As of September 1, 2024, there were 176 inmates in the county.

Find Hood County Arrest Records

Hood arrest records establishing where arrestees are detained or incarcerated are provided by the law enforcement or correctional facilities holding them. For example, you may contact the Hood County Sheriff’s Office to find individuals held by that agency. Hood arrestees in state prisons can be located using the Inmate Information Search tool provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). To find inmates in federal prisons, you may use the inmate locator tool on the website of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Free Arrest Record Search in Hood County

Local, state, and federal inmate lookup tools are available for free for anyone searching for persons held at detention facilities in the country. These include the locator tools mentioned above. To find records documenting arrests, you need to contact the arresting agencies or the courts where the cases resulting from the arrests are tried. Where available, online arrest record search tools provided by Hood County law enforcement and detention facilities are free to use.

In addition to these, there are independent public record lookup services that can provide access to Hood County arrest records. These third-party websites can save you time searching for the right official record search portals. However, they may only have restricted access to such portals and, therefore, provide incomplete results.

Hood County Arrest Records Vs. Criminal Records

An arrest record is a specific record describing the apprehension of a named individual. This single-purpose record does not indicate that the arrestee is guilty of the charge for which they were arrested. In contrast, a criminal record is a comprehensive history of an individual’s contact with the justice system. It includes the record of all criminal arrests as well as charges, prosecutions, sentencing/exonerations, and incarcerations.

A Hood County arrest record is available from the local or state law enforcement agency making the arrest recorded. A Hood County criminal record, on the other hand, is provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety following a request for a background check.

How Long Do Arrests Stay on Your Record?

An arrest will stay on your record permanently except if removed by a court order or change in state or federal law. Removing an arrest from your record requires getting it expunged. An expunction must be formally requested even if the arrest in question meets all the criteria for expungement.

Expunge Hood County Arrest Records

Expunging a Hood County arrest record requires petitioning the District Court in the county by completing and submitting the required forms in order to obtain an Order of Expunction signed by a judge. However, you should confirm that the arrest record is eligible for expunction before submitting this request to the court.

The State of Texas mandates a number of requirements for criminal records to be expunged. First, the case brought as a result of the arrest must have concluded and ended favorably for the accused. This means that the arrestee must have been acquitted at trial, convicted but pardoned, or released of the charges brought against them in some other way. For the record to be expunged, the arrestee’s case must end with:

• No indictment
• A dismissed indictment
• A pretrial diversion completed by the accused
• An offense for which the statute of limitation has expired

Before petitioning to have your Hood County arrest record expunged, you must wait for the following periods of time depending on the arrest charge or offense:

• 3 - 5 years for a felony
• 1 year for a Class A or B misdemeanor
• 180 days for a Class C misdemeanor

Hood County Arrest Warrants

Hood County arrest warrants are issued when officers of the law bring affidavits before judges in the county to authorize the arrests of certain individuals. These are usually people suspected of committing crimes or persons of interest identified during their investigations. In an affidavit for an arrest warrant, the law enforcement agency must provide probable cause for the arrest. If the judge approves of the reason for the arrest, they will sign the arrest warrant approving the apprehension and detention of the individual named on the document.

A Hood County arrest warrant provides the following information:

• Identity of the person to be arrested
• Arrest charge or cause for arrest
• Name and signature of the judge approving the arrest warrant
• Court where the person to be arrested must appear
• When the arrest warrant was issued

Do Hood County Arrest Warrants Expire?

No. Hood County arrest warrants do not expire unless executed. Until the named individual is arrested or surrenders to officers of the law, an active warrant for their arrest remains enforceable. However, the death of the named individual does void any warrant for their arrest.