Austin County, Texas

How a case moves here

Austin County follows Texas 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: A magistrate sets bail first, at the hearing that must follow arrest. Magistrates include judges of every level, justices of the peace, and, in some counties, appointed criminal law magistrates. In misdemeanors, a sheriff, officer, or licensed jailer may take bail, and many counties use bond schedules signed by judges.
Tex. Code Crim. Proc. arts. 17.027, 17.20 to 17.22 Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17
Time to see a judge: A person arrested must be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay and no later than 48 hours after arrest. The magistrate gives the warnings, sets bail, and can appoint a lawyer. The hearing may be held by video.
Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17(a)
Money bail: Texas allows money bail. Since voters approved Proposition 3 in November 2025, a judge must deny bail for murder, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, aggravated sexual assault, and several other felonies when the state proves flight risk or danger at a hearing, and must explain in writing any grant of bail on those charges.
Tex. Const. art. I, secs. 11 to 11d Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.15
Courts: District courts try felonies. Each county has a constitutional county court, and larger counties add county courts at law; these hear Class A and B misdemeanors. Justice courts and city municipal courts hear Class C misdemeanors, which carry only a fine.
Texas Office of Court Administration, The Texas Judicial System (2025)
Judges and magistrates: Voters choose district judges in partisan elections for four-year terms, and the governor fills vacancies until the next election. County judges, county court at law judges, and justices of the peace also win partisan elections for four-year terms. Justices of the peace and most constitutional county judges need not be lawyers; most municipal judges are appointed by the city council.
Texas Office of Court Administration, The Texas Judicial System (2025), "Selection and terms"

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Prop 3 (2025) changed when bail must be denied, not whether money bail exists. Appointed criminal law magistrates exist only in counties with an enabling section in Gov't Code ch. 54, such as Harris, Dallas, Bexar, and Travis. Counts of public defender offices change often; check TIDC before quoting a number.

What this county does differently

Nothing county-specific yet

Whether Austin 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

Sealy7,053
Bellville4,221
Wallis1,701
San Felipe town1,334
Brazos Country619
Industry235
South Frydek221

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Austin 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 Austin County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	51	50	64	64	57	182	411
Murder	1	1		2		Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	6.1
Rape	6	9	7	8	10	25	53
Robbery	7	1	3	5	4	13	67
Aggravated assault	37	39	54	49	43	141	285
Property crime	254	264	246	273	235	809	2,123
Burglary	57	55	47	52	46	163	303
Larceny	159	170	153	175	160	520	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	38	39	46	46	29	126	327
Arson	1	1	1		1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Austin County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	563	608	647	584	479	1,833	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	154	127	164	159	130	467	1,172
Vandalism	82	65	81	44	57	209	534
Fraud	61	49	64	50	70	187	312
Drug abuse violations	203	264	238	259	164	718	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	25	52	43	41	30	122	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	2		2		2	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	19	33	35	18	18	78	64
Embezzlement	1					Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	5	6	10	6	1	18	27
Gambling	1					Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.9
Other Group A offenses	10	12	10	7	7	29	48

Offenses agencies in Austin 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 Texas'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. Texas: 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.