Montgomery County

877,643 people, served by 63 police agencies that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Montgomery 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 2021.
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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
Violent crime	87	65	56	80	73	90	270
Murder		1		2	1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	6.8
Rape	15	14	13	20	32	24	31
Robbery	4	4		5	5	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	61
Aggravated assault	68	46	43	53	35	61	170
Property crime	262	253	270	673	1,189	662	1,445
Burglary	39	34	30	31	51	46	133
Larceny	207	200	222	616	1,065	578	1,108
Motor vehicle theft	16	19	18	26	73	38	204
Arson	9	8	10	14	9	13	12

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Montgomery County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Pennsylvania
All offenses outside the crime index	1,537	1,201	991	925	993	1,413	2,703
Simple assault and intimidation	248	288	242	250	281	328	897
Vandalism	133	112	85	75	72	119	580
Fraud	539	281	199	153	152	331	415
Drug abuse violations	459	374	330	287	291	436	475
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	59	56	33	35	19	51	158
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	15	14	17	53	115	54	27
Forgery and counterfeiting	33	23	18	35	20	32	31
Embezzlement	4	5	13	6	2	7.5	16
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	28	23	29	20	33	33	51
Gambling	1	4	3	1		Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8
Other Group A offenses	18	21	22	10	8	20	44
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)			1			Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.2

Offenses agencies in Montgomery 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.