Centre County, Pennsylvania

How a case moves here

Centre 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 Centre 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

State College borough41,050
Ferguson township19,079
Patton township15,791
College township10,540
Benner township8,876
Spring township8,053
Bellefonte borough6,009
Harris township5,947
Walker township4,672
Rush township3,637
Potter township3,581
Halfmoon township2,823
Philipsburg borough2,748
Boggs township2,713
Gregg township2,142
Haines township1,892
Liberty township1,875
Snow Shoe township1,694
Miles township1,688
Centre Hall borough1,547
Huston township1,516
Union township1,300
Marion township1,199
Milesburg borough1,105
Penn township1,082
Taylor township812
Millheim borough777
Howard township766
Snow Shoe borough702
Howard borough653
Worth township603
Port Matilda borough552
Curtin township507
Burnside township407
Unionville borough238

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Centre 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 Centre County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
Violent crime	51	40	57	43	52	82	270
Murder		1	1		1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	6.8
Rape	28	21	24	15	29	39	31
Robbery		1	1	2		Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	61
Aggravated assault	23	17	31	26	22	40	170
Property crime	278	280	246	245	263	440	1,445
Burglary	46	33	25	22	17	48	133
Larceny	214	224	215	211	236	369	1,108
Motor vehicle theft	18	23	6	12	10	23	204
Arson	2	2	4	4	2	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	12

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Centre County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
All offenses outside the crime index	1,206	1,224	1,060	988	900	1,804	2,703
Simple assault and intimidation	277	373	359	384	427	610	897
Vandalism	110	99	105	103	65	162	580
Fraud	273	163	89	104	86	240	415
Drug abuse violations	427	435	387	303	209	591	475
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	50	36	30	24	28	56	158
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	11	11	5	6	4	12	27
Forgery and counterfeiting	6	11	6	7	4	11	31
Embezzlement	8	16	23	7	15	23	16
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	28	49	34	24	44	60	51
Prostitution and commercialized vice			3	2	2	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	4.9
Gambling	1					Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8
Other Group A offenses	15	31	19	24	16	35	44
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	1	1	2		1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.2
Human trafficking (not in the total)					2	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	0.7

Offenses agencies in Centre 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.