Tahlequah
City in Cherokee County, 16,935 people.
Police
Sheriff in its county: Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
A department is the place's own when its name is the place's and its FBI population fits the place's people (decision city-or-town-is-its-police-department). Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29.
Where it sits
- County
- Cherokee County
- People
- 16,935
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
How a case moves here
Tahlequah follows Oklahoma law on arrests, release, and courts; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.
- Who decides release first
Before a person sees a judge, the jail may release on a bail schedule the district's presiding judge sets by order, and the sheriff may sign the release order where court rule allows. A judge sets or confirms bail at the first appearance or when charges are filed. Police and sheriffs may not release anyone arrested for domestic abuse, stalking, harassment, or a protective order violation until a judge sees them.
22 O.S. sec. 110522 O.S. sec. 1105.2 (in force until 2026-12-31)- Time to see a judge
A person arrested must be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay. Oklahoma statute sets no hour limit.
22 O.S. sec. 181- Money bail
Oklahoma allows money bail, and each judicial district may adopt a money bail schedule that it reviews every year. Pretrial bail is set as a dollar amount.
22 O.S. sec. 1105.2 (in force until 2026-12-31)
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. SB 1618 (2026) rewrites 22 O.S. 1105.2 from 2027-01-01; recheck first_bail, money_bail, and pretrial_assessment then. Whether the Oklahoma County jail trust has been dissolved was not confirmed. Oklahoma's district court is a single general trial court; only municipal courts sit below it.
Crime
Offenses reported by Tahlequah Police Department, Tahlequah's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.
The crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Oklahoma |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 35 | 26 | 16 | 31 | 8 | 136 | 426 |
| Murder | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 6.4 | |||||
| Rape | 1 | 2 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 63 | ||
| Robbery | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 39 |
| Aggravated assault | 31 | 24 | 13 | 28 | 4 | 117 | 318 |
| Property crime | 202 | 248 | 145 | 390 | 310 | 1,513 | 2,191 |
| Burglary | 31 | 23 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 106 | 468 |
| Larceny | 156 | 219 | 135 | 364 | 287 | 1,356 | 1,446 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 15 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 10 | 50 | 277 |
| Arson | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 18 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Oklahoma |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 524 | 440 | 379 | 295 | 312 | 2,278 | 3,337 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 87 | 84 | 80 | 150 | 156 | 651 | 1,234 |
| Vandalism | 46 | 43 | 39 | 37 | 35 | 234 | 503 |
| Fraud | 8 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 17 | 72 | 417 |
| Drug abuse violations | 307 | 262 | 216 | 61 | 70 | 1,070 | 708 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 35 | 19 | 18 | 22 | 13 | 125 | 134 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 35 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 79 | 72 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 68 | |
| Embezzlement | 1 | 4 | 6 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 45 | ||
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 1 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 63 | |||
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 7.6 | |||
| Other Group A offenses | 3 | 2 | 5 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 84 | ||
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1.6 |
Offenses Tahlequah Police Department 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 department polices, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside Oklahoma's rate over the same years. – 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. Oklahoma: 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.