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Smithville

City in Bastrop County, 4,216 people.

Police

Sheriff in its county: Bastrop County Sheriff's Office.

A department or FBI code is the place's own when its name is the place's and its FBI population fits the place's people (decisions city-or-town-is-its-police-department, left-out-code-is-its-place). Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29.

Where it sits

People
4,216
Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024

How a case moves here

Smithville follows Texas law on arrests, release, and courts; 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

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.

Crime

Offenses reported by Smithville Police Department, Smithville's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.

The crime index

Crime index offenses reported by Smithville Police Department, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kTexas
Violent crime881568207411
Murder1Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.6.1
Rape2423Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.53
Robbery121Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.67
Aggravated assault76934134285
Property crime45496126471,0502,123
Burglary63943115303
Larceny31424621418331,493
Motor vehicle theft84613101327
Arson121Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by Smithville Police Department, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kTexas
All offenses outside the crime index1481611521921483,6882,904
Simple assault and intimidation56435661541,2431,172
Vandalism2625361919575534
Fraud77238124312
Drug abuse violations49784787551,455602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.545159175109
Forgery and counterfeiting52442Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.64
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)2121Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.27
Other Group A offenses11Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.48

Offenses Smithville Police Department 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 department polices, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside Texas's rate over the same years. – 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.