Portsmouth
Town in Newport County, 17,644 people.
Police
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
- Newport County
- People
- 17,644
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
How a case moves here
Portsmouth follows Rhode Island law on arrests, release, and courts; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.
- Who decides release first
When court is in session, a District Court judge sets bail. When it is closed, a bail commissioner, a lawyer appointed by the Chief Judge of the District Court, holds a bail hearing at the police station. Bail commissioners can't set bail for offenses punishable by life.
R.I. Gen. Laws 12-10-2- Time to see a judge
The court rules say a person arrested without a warrant must be taken before a District Court judge without unnecessary delay, and set no hour limit. The U.S. Supreme Court's 48-hour rule for a probable cause finding applies as the federal floor.
R.I. Dist. Ct. R. Crim. P. 5(a)- Money bail
Money bail is allowed. The state constitution gives a right to bail by sufficient surety, except for offenses punishable by life and a few listed weapons and drug offenses.
R.I. Const. art. I, s. 9
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. That Rhode Island judges have no fixed term rests on the constitution and general knowledge; we read only the appointment clause. Whether District Court judges must be lawyers, and domestic violence limits on bail commissioners, were not confirmed.
Crime
Offenses reported by Portsmouth Police Department, Portsmouth'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 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Rhode Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 12 | 2 | 16 | 3 | 7 | 46 | 168 |
| Murder | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 2.3 | ||||
| Rape | 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 36 |
| Robbery | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 23 | |||||
| Aggravated assault | 8 | 7 | 1 | 4 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 107 | |
| Property crime | 62 | 62 | 47 | 63 | 52 | 325 | 1,116 |
| Burglary | 14 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 50 | 114 |
| Larceny | 43 | 48 | 37 | 51 | 43 | 253 | 867 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 23 | 135 |
| Arson | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 7.9 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Rhode Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 260 | 238 | 188 | 192 | 185 | 1,210 | 1,936 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 95 | 71 | 66 | 69 | 62 | 413 | 681 |
| Vandalism | 54 | 79 | 47 | 46 | 43 | 306 | 501 |
| Fraud | 11 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 11 | 98 | 320 |
| Drug abuse violations | 68 | 44 | 30 | 18 | 11 | 195 | 183 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 16 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 19 | 67 | 80 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 34 | |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 11 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 15 | 64 | 52 |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 26 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1.8 | |||
| Gambling | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.7 | ||||
| Other Group A offenses | 2 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 40 | 46 |
Offenses Portsmouth 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, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside Rhode Island's rate over the same years. – 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. Rhode Island: 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.