Lake County, Ohio

How a case moves here

Lake County follows Ohio law on arrests, release, and courts. These rules are the same in every county in the state; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.

Who decides release first: Every court must keep a bail schedule for misdemeanors so people can be released before they see a judge. When no judge, magistrate, or clerk is available, the sheriff, police, or jailer may set bail from that schedule. Only a judge or magistrate sets bail on a felony.
Ohio Rev. Code 2937.23 Ohio Rev. Code 2937.011(I)
Time to see a judge: A person arrested and still held must see a judicial officer for a bail hearing by the second court day after arrest. After a warrantless arrest, a judge or magistrate must also review probable cause within 48 hours, but that review can happen on paper. If the person had no lawyer at the first hearing and is still held, a second bail hearing with appointed counsel follows two court days later.
Ohio Rev. Code 2937.011(J)Ohio Crim. R. 4(E)(2)
Money bail: Ohio courts may set money bail. The constitution tells courts to weigh public safety, the charge, and the person's record when setting the amount. State law requires the least restrictive conditions and any money terms to be the least costly that will bring the person back to court.
Ohio Const. art. I, sec. 9 Ohio Rev. Code 2937.011(A)-(B)
Courts: Each county's court of common pleas tries felonies. Municipal and county courts hear misdemeanors and hold first appearances in felony cases. Mayor's courts in some cities and villages without a municipal court hear ordinance and traffic cases.
Ohio Rev. Code 2301.01 Ohio Rev. Code 1905.01 Ohio Rev. Code 1907.13
Judges and magistrates: Voters elect common pleas judges to six-year terms on a ballot that shows no party, and judges must have six years of law practice. Municipal and county court judges are elected the same way and must also be lawyers. A mayor, who need not be a lawyer, hears mayor's court cases or appoints a lawyer as magistrate.
Ohio Rev. Code 2301.01 Ohio Rev. Code 3505.04 Ohio Rev. Code 1901.06 Ohio Rev. Code 1901.07 Ohio Rev. Code 1905.05

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Crim.R. 46 was repealed July 1, 2023; bail rules now sit in R.C. 2937.011. Common pleas candidates may run in party primaries even though the general ballot is nonpartisan; not confirmed from statute text here. Magistrate lawyer requirement under Crim.R. 19 not read. That city prosecutors handle misdemeanors is general practice, not read from statute.

What this county does differently

Pretrial practice: Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as the Ohio Risk Assessment System Pretrial Assessment Tool (ORAS-PAT).
MediaJustice and Movement Alliance Project, Mapping Pretrial Injustice county map (data as of fall 2021)
From Mapping Pretrial Injustice, a map compiled by MediaJustice and the Movement Alliance Project, advocacy groups that campaign against pretrial risk assessment tools. Its data is from fall 2021; CrimeDB uses it only where no court, government, or research list covers the county.

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Lake County, largest first. Population, the whole place's: Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024.

Police agencies

Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29. An agency that serves several counties appears on each. Population served is the FBI's figure.

Crime

The crime index

Crime index offenses reported by agencies in Lake County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Ohio
Violent crime	132	149	186	223	196	84	315
Murder		1	6	2	2	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	6.3
Rape	25	24	31	31	25	13	52
Robbery	11	7	13	10	19	5.7	54
Aggravated assault	96	117	136	180	150	64	203
Property crime	1,166	1,313	1,556	1,752	1,354	674	1,700
Burglary	82	90	113	100	83	44	241
Larceny	1,023	1,156	1,351	1,569	1,211	595	1,227
Motor vehicle theft	61	67	92	83	60	34	232
Arson	4	6	7	4	8	2.7	9.4

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Lake County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Ohio
All offenses outside the crime index	3,257	2,821	3,466	3,050	2,689	1,442	2,693
Simple assault and intimidation	578	583	1,064	1,293	1,079	434	1,147
Vandalism	246	281	370	402	314	152	569
Fraud	844	316	316	314	300	197	226
Drug abuse violations	1,195	1,295	1,349	700	716	496	467
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	185	131	137	158	129	70	116
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	34	56	47	38	39	20	43
Forgery and counterfeiting	111	68	58	42	38	30	30
Embezzlement		1			1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	4.5
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	22	24	38	37	23	14	37
Prostitution and commercialized vice	19	38	30	3	2	8.7	4.9
Other Group A offenses	23	28	57	63	48	21	49

Offenses agencies in Lake County reported to the FBI in incident detail (NIBRS), each year, the second table by the arrest class each offense falls in. Per 100k: offenses per 100,000 people the reporting agencies police, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside Ohio's rate over the same years. Agencies that reported part of a year are counted with their people, as the state's rates count them. – means too few for a rate: the count is under 20.

Source: FBI NIBRS national master files, each agency's offenses and the FBI's population for it. Ohio: the crime index: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, CrimeDB's chosen value per year (the state page's figures); outside it: FBI NIBRS, agencies that sent incident detail.