Texas Police Report: How to Get a Crash Report from CRIS, an Incident Report, or Bodycam Footage

Texas runs its crash reports through a single statewide purchase system, TxDOT's Crash Records Information System, known as CRIS. That is a different channel from a local incident report, which still has to come from whichever city or county department responded, under the state's general public information law.

Texas is also unusually specific about who is allowed to change a crash report once it is filed. Under § 550.068, a change that alters a material fact may be made only by the peace officer who prepared the report; a change originating with anyone else is valid only as a written supplement that names the person behind it. That distinction matters in any insurance or injury claim that depends on the report's accuracy.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Getting a Copy of a Texas Crash Report

Texas crash reports are purchased through CRIS, the Crash Records Information System run by the Texas Department of Transportation. A standard copy costs $6 and a certified copy costs $8, figures TxDOT confirms directly on its own crash-reports-records page. They trace back to Texas Transportation Code § 550.065(d), which sets the fee for a copy of the collision report at $6 and allows certification for an additional $2. The report is delivered electronically once the purchase goes through.

The unredacted report is not open to anyone who asks. Texas Transportation Code § 550.065 makes crash report information "privileged and for the confidential use of" the department and agencies with a legitimate collision-prevention or criminal-investigation use. Subsection (c)(4) then requires release to "any person directly concerned in the collision or having a proper interest therein," and follows that standard with a list of examples: a person involved in the crash or an authorized representative, a driver involved, the owner of a vehicle or property damaged in the collision, an employer, parent, or legal guardian of an involved driver, an insurance company covering an involved vehicle or person, an FCC-licensed broadcaster or qualifying newspaper, anyone who may sue because of a death resulting from the collision, and a vehicle storage facility that stored an involved vehicle. That list is illustrative rather than closed, so a requester who falls outside every listed category but can show a proper interest in the collision still qualifies.

Anyone else can still obtain the report in redacted form. Subsection (c-1) provides that the department or governmental entity "shall create a redacted collision report that may be requested by any person." The redacted version strips the items listed in subsection (f)(2), including names, driver's license and identification numbers, addresses and phone numbers, license plate numbers, and insurer names and policy numbers. TxDOT describes the same practice on its crash-reports page: requesters who do not meet the § 550.065(c) criteria receive a redacted copy.

CRIS covers crash data for the prior 10 full calendar years plus the current year. One detail worth knowing if a crash was minor enough that no officer investigated: TxDOT stopped retaining driver self-report forms, known as CR-2 forms, as of January 1, 2019. Those older self-reports are not something CRIS can produce.

Correcting a Texas Crash Report

If something on a Texas crash report is wrong, Texas Transportation Code § 550.068 controls who is allowed to change it. A change or modification that alters a material fact in a report prepared by a peace officer "may be made only by the peace officer who prepared the report." That officer can amend the report itself.

Subsection (b) is the exception covering everyone else. A person other than the peace officer may change the report only if the change is made by a written supplement to the report and the supplement "clearly indicates the name of the person who originated the change." The practical consequence is that the first step is almost always the investigating officer or that officer's agency: a correction the officer makes is an amendment to the report, while a correction originating with a driver, an insurer, or an attorney has to be attached as an attributed written supplement rather than folded into the original.

Getting a Copy of a Texas Police Incident Report

An incident report, covering an arrest, a burglary, or any other non-crash police response, is requested from the records division of the city or county department that handled it. Texas has no single statewide portal for these the way it does for crash reports through CRIS. In Texas's largest cities, that typically means the police department's own online records request system or public information request process; in smaller jurisdictions, it means contacting the department directly.

These requests fall under the Texas Public Information Act. Texas Government Code § 552.108 gives a law enforcement agency or prosecutor an exception for "information held by a law enforcement agency or prosecutor that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime," where releasing it "would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime." As in most states, that exception is applied case by case: a closed matter is far more likely to be released in full than an open investigation.

Texas Body Camera Footage

Texas has a dedicated body worn camera framework built into its Code of Criminal Procedure, covering everything from grant funding for departments to activation and release rules. The specific release provision, Article 2B.0112, states that body worn camera information held by a law enforcement agency "is not subject to" the Public Information Act's general disclosure requirement, with an important carve-back: information that "is or could be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution is subject to" that same disclosure section. In practice, that means whether footage is treated as generally available or as a criminal-investigation record can turn on whether the recorded incident is connected to a pending or possible prosecution.

Article 2B.0112(a) also fixes what the request itself must contain, and this is the gate most Texas bodycam requests run into first. A member of the public submitting a written request to a law enforcement agency for body worn camera information must include the date and approximate time of the recording, the specific location where the recording occurred, and the name of one or more individuals known to be a subject of the recording. Missing one of the three is not permanently fatal: subsection (b) provides that failure to supply the required information "does not preclude the requestor from making a future request for the same recorded information." But it does mean an incomplete request may simply have to be refiled with the missing details, so gather all three before submitting.

Because Texas has periodically reorganized its law-enforcement statutes between the Occupations Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, confirm the current citation and process directly with the agency's records unit or the Texas Attorney General's Public Information Act resources before relying on a specific section number. For the general request process and a state comparison, see How to Request Body Cam Footage and Texas Body Camera Laws.

Related Resources

Police Reports by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also How to File a Police Report, How to Read a Police Report, Are Police Reports Public?, Texas Body Camera Laws, Texas Car Accident Laws, Texas Public Records Laws, and Texas Court Records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how to request police crash reports, incident reports, and body camera footage in Texas. It is not legal advice. Fees, portals, and statutes change; confirm current details with TxDOT, the responding agency, or a Texas attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-10. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.