Getting a crash report

Which report you are asking for

An officer’s written report is the Texas peace officer’s crash report, which TxDOT calls a CR-3. Section 550.062 requires an officer who investigates in the regular course of duty to make that report when the crash caused injury or death, or damage to the property of any one person to an apparent extent of $1,000 or more. The report is filed electronically with TxDOT not later than the 10th day after the crash. TxDOT says it is the custodian of those records for crashes on public roadways and the state highway system, and that the retention schedule is 10 years plus the current year.

A different form, the driver’s CR-2, is not the officer’s report. TxDOT says that since September 1, 2017 it has not retained CR-2 forms, that it no longer hosts the form, and that a CR-2 sent in will be destroyed. If an officer gave you a local form to keep, keep it yourself. HPD’s services page still lists a blue-form link. The destination checked for this edition returned HTTP 404, so this page does not send you there.

Who may receive a full copy

Section 550.065 says collision reports are privileged except for the releases the section allows. On written request and payment of the required fee, a release goes to listed persons directly concerned or with a proper interest. The statute’s list includes a person involved, that person’s authorized representative, a driver, an employer, parent, or legal guardian of a driver, the owner of a damaged vehicle or property, a person who established financial responsibility for a vehicle in a manner described by § 601.051, an insurance company that covered a vehicle or a person involved, certain contractors of those insurers, licensed broadcast stations, qualifying newspapers, a person who may sue because of a death, and a vehicle-storage-facility employee who stored a vehicle from the crash.

The same section requires a redacted report that any person may request. The redacted copy withholds names, license numbers, full dates of birth, street addresses, telephone numbers, plate numbers, insurer names and policy numbers, and other items listed in subsection (f). The statute sets the copy fee at $6, plus $2 if the copy is certified, and $6 for a certification that no report is on file.

City of Houston paths

HPD’s records page says you should be ready to give at least two of these: the date, the location, the names of drivers or other parties, and the incident number if you have it. The page lists three routes: an online purchase it attributes to TxDOT at buycrash.lexisnexisrisk.com, mail, and the first-floor counter at 1200 Travis Street. Mail instructions on that page say to send a check or money order for $6 payable to the City of Houston, a self-addressed stamped envelope, and the completed H.B. 2633 form. The English form is marked Rev. 12/25 and also offers a certified copy for $8. The Spanish form published by HPD gives the same $6 and $8 figures. Questions on both the records page and the English form go to (713) 308-8500, option 3.

HPD’s services index links the online purchase to buycrash.lexisnexisrisk.com. The December 2025 form instead prints policereports.lexisnexis.com. TxDOT’s own user guide tells people to open cris.txdot.gov/public/purchase. Those are three official instructions with three addresses. Use the page you are following that day. The purchase sites are run for the agencies, not by this guide. They will ask for crash details. Do not type those details into Crash Steps. There is no field for them.

TxDOT fees, and crashes another agency worked

TxDOT’s crash-records page repeats the $6 regular copy and the $8 certified copy, and it says a card payment may add a processing fee. The page does not state the surcharge amount, so this guide does not either. The purchase guide says an electronic-check payment has no Texas.gov fee in the guide’s description and may be held 10 days before release. Read the screen you are paying on. A letter that no report is on file is described in the statute at a $6 fee. TxDOT’s guide says a certified letter of no record is not charged if the search does not find a report through its online system. If those two statements seem to point different ways, follow the system you are actually using and keep the receipt.

A crash worked by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, another city’s police, or DPS is still a CR-3 that TxDOT collects when the officer was required to file one. HCSO’s public notices have directed people to TxDOT to purchase crash reports. Start with the agency named on any information card you were given, and with TxDOT’s purchase page. This site cannot see whether a report has been filed.