Berks County

440,072 people, served by 57 police agencies that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Berks 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

Nothing county-specific yet

Whether Berks County runs a pretrial services office, uses a risk assessment, or has its own bail schedule appears here once a cited source says so.

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Berks 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 Berks County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
Violent crime	94	282	532	398	335	203	270
Murder		11	14	9	11	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	6.8
Rape	30	47	69	45	28	27	31
Robbery	7	66	121	103	84	47	61
Aggravated assault	57	158	328	241	212	123	170
Property crime	345	1,050	2,017	1,877	1,667	862	1,445
Burglary	58	232	409	297	275	157	133
Larceny	252	705	1,295	1,322	1,169	588	1,108
Motor vehicle theft	35	113	313	258	223	117	204
Arson	9	16	23	17	6	8.8	12

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Berks County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
All offenses outside the crime index	1,741	2,632	4,521	4,718	4,641	2,262	2,703
Simple assault and intimidation	396	1,131	2,094	1,795	1,846	900	897
Vandalism	169	412	754	935	804	381	580
Fraud	533	403	538	573	685	339	415
Drug abuse violations	337	351	684	899	861	388	475
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	198	177	227	224	175	124	158
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	12	27	76	67	71	31	27
Forgery and counterfeiting	10	35	26	88	42	25	31
Embezzlement	9	12	10	24	33	11	16
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	40	45	55	51	49	30	51
Prostitution and commercialized vice				8	2	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	4.9
Gambling			3			Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8
Other Group A offenses	37	39	54	54	73	32	44
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	1	1		2		Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.2
Human trafficking (not in the total)	1	1		1	1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	0.7

Offenses agencies in Berks 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.