Hays County, Texas

How a case moves here

Hays 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 Hays 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 Hays 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 Hays County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	751	864	726	634	647	259	411
Murder	5	6	6	2	4	1.6	6.1
Rape	187	219	140	159	159	62	53
Robbery	66	76	86	53	50	24	67
Aggravated assault	493	563	494	420	434	172	285
Property crime	3,496	3,937	3,597	3,640	3,380	1,290	2,123
Burglary	500	472	483	450	417	166	303
Larceny	2,657	3,010	2,621	2,684	2,534	966	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	339	455	493	506	429	159	327
Arson	4	15	8	4	6	2.6	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Hays County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	6,587	6,539	5,745	5,610	6,422	2,209	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	2,201	2,414	2,220	2,268	2,763	848	1,172
Vandalism	984	1,006	841	772	782	313	534
Fraud	913	859	851	811	972	315	312
Drug abuse violations	1,742	1,475	1,166	1,094	1,240	480	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	249	224	205	187	192	76	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	59	40	49	110	101	26	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	175	217	156	138	115	57	64
Embezzlement	21	26	23	11	10	6.5	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	109	83	65	47	26	24	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	13	7		1	9	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	10
Gambling		3			1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.9
Other Group A offenses	121	185	169	171	211	61	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	4			1	3	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)	4	5	1	3	4	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8

Offenses agencies in Hays 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.