Denton County, Texas

How a case moves here

Denton 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 Denton 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 Denton 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 Denton County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	1,571	1,534	1,466	1,323	1,224	156	411
Murder	15	19	29	21	20	2.3	6.1
Rape	439	379	345	322	306	39	53
Robbery	186	168	195	141	125	18	67
Aggravated assault	931	968	897	839	773	97	285
Property crime	10,660	12,518	11,985	10,622	9,241	1,209	2,123
Burglary	1,175	1,210	1,132	1,075	935	121	303
Larceny	8,291	9,965	9,491	8,343	7,325	954	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	1,194	1,343	1,362	1,204	981	134	327
Arson	36	23	33	31	22	3.2	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Denton County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	17,492	17,582	17,326	16,195	14,838	1,834	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	5,626	5,885	6,037	6,442	6,334	666	1,172
Vandalism	2,080	2,141	2,000	1,818	1,610	212	534
Fraud	3,186	2,875	2,844	2,634	2,340	305	312
Drug abuse violations	4,812	4,705	4,547	3,362	2,837	445	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	898	919	830	703	625	87	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	85	99	89	80	64	9.2	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	345	478	394	427	381	45	64
Embezzlement	39	42	22	38	19	3.5	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	170	128	125	95	94	13	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	13	44	71	87	46	5.7	10
Gambling	4		1		1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.9
Other Group A offenses	234	266	366	509	487	41	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	10	4	6	4	8	0.7	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)	4	3	7	6	12	0.7	1.8

Offenses agencies in Denton 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.