Bexar County, Texas

How a case moves here

Bexar 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

Pretrial practice: Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as a county-specific tool (not named in the list).
MediaJustice and Movement Alliance Project, Mapping Pretrial Injustice county map (data as of fall 2021)
From Mapping Pretrial Injustice, a map compiled by MediaJustice and the Movement Alliance Project, advocacy groups that campaign against pretrial risk assessment tools. Its data is from fall 2021; CrimeDB uses it only where no court, government, or research list covers the county.

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Bexar 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 Bexar County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	12,636	14,649	11,997	10,823	9,703	571	411
Murder	182	248	183	150	126	8.5	6.1
Rape	1,549	1,829	1,732	1,545	1,381	77	53
Robbery	1,859	1,912	2,014	1,858	1,561	88	67
Aggravated assault	9,046	10,660	8,068	7,270	6,635	398	285
Property crime	71,369	85,993	93,496	82,739	71,088	3,863	2,123
Burglary	8,932	10,333	9,606	8,739	8,516	440	303
Larceny	52,334	61,690	62,346	59,381	51,499	2,742	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	10,103	13,970	21,544	14,619	11,073	681	327
Arson	307	289	258	213	171	12	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Bexar County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	81,603	84,619	86,050	94,089	86,357	4,130	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	30,207	30,369	29,608	32,336	30,807	1,464	1,172
Vandalism	18,020	19,950	21,377	26,575	19,544	1,007	534
Fraud	12,073	10,358	11,582	11,769	10,944	541	312
Drug abuse violations	13,009	15,068	15,225	16,123	18,204	741	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	2,585	3,148	3,034	2,482	2,371	130	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	290	625	545	668	570	26	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	2,318	2,541	2,255	1,901	1,662	102	64
Embezzlement	252	368	347	267	222	14	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	1,244	1,021	922	488	589	41	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	559	256	186	236	190	14	10
Gambling	35	34	10	10	10	0.9	1.9
Other Group A offenses	1,011	881	959	1,234	1,244	51	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	32	27	23	27	39	1.4	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)	10	27	22	18	14	0.9	1.8

Offenses agencies in Bexar 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.