Scranton

• Scranton Police DepartmentIncident detail since January 202175,837 served

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.

County

Lackawanna County

People

76,033

Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024

Scranton 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.

Offenses reported by Scranton Police Department, Scranton's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.