Lancaster
City in Lancaster County, 57,719 people.
Police
Sheriff in its county: Lancaster 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
- Lancaster County
- People
- 57,719
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
How a case moves here
Lancaster follows Pennsylvania law on arrests, release, and courts; 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. 51942 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)
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.
Crime
Offenses reported by Lancaster Police Department, Lancaster'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 | 2024* | 2025 | Per 100k | Pennsylvania |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 246 | 217 | 371 | 235 |
| Murder | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 4.3 | |
| Rape | 15 | 21 | 36 | 27 |
| Robbery | 15 | 20 | 34 | 47 |
| Aggravated assault | 215 | 176 | 301 | 157 |
| Property crime | 731 | 795 | 1,357 | 1,390 |
| Burglary | 55 | 62 | 106 | 110 |
| Larceny | 621 | 678 | 1,158 | 1,083 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 55 | 55 | 94 | 196 |
| Arson | 2 | 7 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 10 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2024* | 2025 | Per 100k | Pennsylvania |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 1,910 | 2,124 | 3,626 | 2,699 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 708 | 780 | 1,332 | 939 |
| Vandalism | 304 | 323 | 551 | 546 |
| Fraud | 181 | 200 | 341 | 405 |
| Drug abuse violations | 555 | 651 | 1,112 | 498 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 71 | 79 | 135 | 138 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 34 | 29 | 50 | 30 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 8 | 16 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 28 |
| Embezzlement | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 15 | |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 36 | 24 | 41 | 47 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 5.1 | |
| Other Group A offenses | 13 | 20 | 34 | 46 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 1 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1.2 |
Offenses Lancaster 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, 2025 added together, full years only, beside Pennsylvania's rate over the same years. – means too few for a rate: the count is under 20.
* 2024: reported for part of the year only, so the count is short and the year is left out of the rate.
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.