Smith County, Texas

How a case moves here

Smith 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 Smith 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

Tyler109,215
Whitehouse9,122
Lindale6,644
Bullard town4,346
Hideaway3,301
Overton2,444
Troup2,338
Arp1,111
Winona town1,025
New Chapel Hill891
Noonday707

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Smith 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 Smith County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	844	926	800	773	744	335	411
Murder	10	14	13	18	9	5.2	6.1
Rape	106	128	135	157	180	58	53
Robbery	67	55	50	56	48	23	67
Aggravated assault	661	729	602	542	507	249	285
Property crime	4,221	3,710	3,435	3,222	2,970	1,439	2,123
Burglary	648	554	472	396	324	196	303
Larceny	3,136	2,770	2,604	2,525	2,401	1,101	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	437	386	359	301	245	142	327
Arson	2	2	6	2	4	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Smith County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	6,554	6,243	6,592	6,329	5,990	2,599	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	2,043	2,018	2,105	2,060	2,064	843	1,172
Vandalism	1,243	1,016	1,010	844	754	399	534
Fraud	620	637	748	678	602	269	312
Drug abuse violations	2,034	1,888	2,042	2,027	1,904	811	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	216	232	266	232	224	96	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	45	49	32	35	18	15	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	143	159	181	192	153	68	64
Embezzlement	9	10	6	8	6	3.2	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	117	122	97	141	111	48	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	8	3	21	10	12	4.4	10
Gambling	1				1	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.9
Other Group A offenses	75	109	84	102	141	42	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	6	2	1	1		Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)	3	1	1		7	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8

Offenses agencies in Smith 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.