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Brazoria County

419,080 people, served by 33 police agencies that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Brazoria 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 17.22Tex. 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 11dTex. 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 Brazoria 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

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Brazoria 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 Brazoria County, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kTexas
Violent crime826779721728599178411
Murder97915102.46.1
Rape1341741621831313853
Robbery88948470551967
Aggravated assault595504466460403119285
Property crime5,1745,9375,6255,0434,3581,2762,123
Burglary612747714671646166303
Larceny4,0804,6504,4073,9343,3559971,493
Motor vehicle theft482540504438357113327
Arson88101262.19.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Brazoria County, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kTexas
All offenses outside the crime index9,3169,98310,0159,6029,5332,3652,904
Simple assault and intimidation3,8864,1354,1334,0023,8799781,172
Vandalism1,0541,193986930861245534
Fraud1,3461,1821,2649791,031283312
Drug abuse violations2,2302,5532,7292,6602,795633602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.31132828832032677109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing5548691511482317
Forgery and counterfeiting2052872592061685564
Embezzlement51051061.88.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)979883104972327
Prostitution and commercialized vice341310162.210
Gambling24125750197.91.9
Other Group A offenses1001331291801873648
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)4521Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)6Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.1.8

Offenses agencies in Brazoria 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.