Galveston County, Texas

How a case moves here

Galveston 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 Galveston 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 Galveston 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 Galveston County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	1,037	927	1,050	1,008	829	259	411
Murder	29	29	26	18	24	6.7	6.1
Rape	295	258	263	277	239	71	53
Robbery	117	110	128	123	99	31	67
Aggravated assault	596	530	633	590	467	151	285
Property crime	6,176	6,710	5,732	5,664	4,804	1,555	2,123
Burglary	865	927	732	783	607	209	303
Larceny	4,546	5,058	4,291	4,331	3,726	1,174	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	765	725	709	550	471	172	327
Arson	24	22	24	12	26	5.8	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Galveston County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	11,785	12,145	12,591	13,885	12,190	3,347	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	5,143	4,908	5,323	5,602	4,912	1,384	1,172
Vandalism	1,105	1,075	1,165	1,638	1,303	336	534
Fraud	1,268	1,517	1,496	1,467	1,267	375	312
Drug abuse violations	2,810	3,090	3,176	3,807	3,580	880	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	556	530	616	549	454	145	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	226	303	250	251	162	64	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	301	342	244	241	174	70	64
Embezzlement	14	29	33	34	31	7.5	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	212	121	93	112	88	33	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	16	26	22	10	10	4.5	10
Gambling	21	23	11	3	10	3.6	1.9
Other Group A offenses	113	181	162	171	199	44	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	5	10	5	1	1	1.2	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)	3	2	2	3	1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8

Offenses agencies in Galveston 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.