Allegheny County

1,225,035 people, served by 147 police agencies that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Allegheny County follows Pennsylvania 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: Outside Philadelphia, a magisterial district judge sets bail at the preliminary arraignment. In Philadelphia, an arraignment court magistrate appointed by the Municipal Court sets it; magistrates need not be lawyers if they complete a training program. Neither may set bail for murder or voluntary manslaughter; a Common Pleas judge does.
Pa.R.Crim.P. 519 42 Pa.C.S. 1515(a)(4)42 Pa.C.S. 1123(a)(5)
Time to see a judge: A person arrested without a warrant must have a preliminary arraignment without unnecessary delay. The rule sets no hour limit. The U.S. Supreme Court's 48-hour rule for a probable cause finding applies as the federal floor.
Pa.R.Crim.P. 516(A)
Money bail: Money bail is allowed. The rules list five kinds of release, from release on recognizance to a money condition no larger than needed to ensure the person appears.
Pa.R.Crim.P. 524(C)
Courts: The Court of Common Pleas, organized in 60 judicial districts, tries felonies and misdemeanors. Magisterial district judges hear summary offenses, the lowest grade, and hold first arraignments and preliminary hearings. In Philadelphia, the Municipal Court tries crimes punishable by up to five years without a jury.
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Courts of Common Pleas 42 Pa.C.S. 1515 42 Pa.C.S. 1123
Judges and magistrates: Common Pleas judges win a contested election for a 10-year term, then run in yes-or-no retention elections without party labels. Magisterial district judges are elected in contested elections to six-year terms and need not be lawyers. All other judges must be members of the bar.
Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, How Judges Are Elected

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The prison board statute covers counties of the third to fifth class and those that opt in; Philadelphia and Allegheny run jails under other arrangements not read here.

What this county does differently

Pretrial practice: Advancing Pretrial lists it as a Public Safety Assessment site since 2016.
Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research, PSA sites list (page modified 2026-06-03)

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Allegheny 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 Allegheny County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
Violent crime	501	806	1,339	2,713	2,338	215	270
Murder	56	62	70	113	68	10	6.8
Rape	116	194	271	486	291	38	31
Robbery	41	113	229	538	493	40	61
Aggravated assault	288	437	769	1,576	1,486	127	170
Property crime	1,348	2,594	5,761	13,024	12,424	983	1,445
Burglary	126	249	550	1,235	1,144	92	133
Larceny	1,136	2,156	4,663	10,209	9,892	784	1,108
Motor vehicle theft	86	189	548	1,580	1,388	106	204
Arson	15	30	60	137	137	11	12

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Allegheny County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
All offenses outside the crime index	4,198	6,230	11,811	22,418	22,677	1,882	2,703
Simple assault and intimidation	856	1,600	3,927	7,477	7,372	594	897
Vandalism	508	838	1,933	4,480	4,014	329	580
Fraud	1,084	1,041	1,756	3,272	3,266	291	415
Drug abuse violations	1,200	1,790	2,650	4,562	5,420	437	475
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	155	320	582	936	964	83	158
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	90	171	291	561	580	47	27
Forgery and counterfeiting	130	171	205	353	355	34	31
Embezzlement	8	14	16	23	11	2	16
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	107	179	269	410	257	34	51
Prostitution and commercialized vice	4	4	14	30	44	2.7	4.9
Gambling		2			1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8
Other Group A offenses	56	100	168	314	393	29	44
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	2	10	13	21	7	1.5	1.2
Human trafficking (not in the total)		1	3	4	12	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	0.7

Offenses agencies in Allegheny 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 Pennsylvania'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. Pennsylvania: 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.