Travis County, Texas

How a case moves here

Travis 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

Pretrial practice: Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as the Ohio Risk Assessment System Pretrial Assessment Tool (ORAS-PAT).
MediaJustice and Movement Alliance Project, Mapping Pretrial Injustice county map (data as of fall 2021)
From Mapping Pretrial Injustice, a map compiled by MediaJustice and the Movement Alliance Project, advocacy groups that campaign against pretrial risk assessment tools. Its data is from fall 2021; CrimeDB uses it only where no court, government, or research list covers the county.

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Travis 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 Travis County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	6,199	6,492	6,298	5,830	5,421	434	411
Murder	96	82	73	74	61	5.5	6.1
Rape	879	832	825	917	927	63	53
Robbery	1,086	1,052	1,058	960	910	73	67
Aggravated assault	4,138	4,526	4,342	3,879	3,523	293	285
Property crime	40,305	41,523	40,527	39,824	37,604	2,870	2,123
Burglary	5,566	5,598	5,430	5,130	5,014	384	303
Larceny	29,606	29,872	26,968	27,636	27,437	2,033	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	5,133	6,053	8,129	7,058	5,153	453	327
Arson	209	181	207	172	140	13	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Travis County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	45,745	44,960	43,792	45,148	48,565	3,279	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	19,781	19,534	18,730	19,703	20,428	1,410	1,172
Vandalism	8,637	8,202	8,454	8,263	7,800	594	534
Fraud	8,492	7,606	6,703	6,367	6,991	519	312
Drug abuse violations	5,030	5,476	6,002	7,153	9,490	476	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	1,093	1,305	1,201	1,227	1,249	87	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	54	13	31	18	34	2.2	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	1,055	1,240	955	686	673	66	64
Embezzlement	28	15	42	41	16	2	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	534	468	434	387	371	32	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	62	52	71	43	61	4.2	10
Gambling	9	2	10	20	12	0.8	1.9
Other Group A offenses	970	1,047	1,159	1,240	1,440	84	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	12	12	9	7	14	0.8	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)	13	5	9	13	14	0.8	1.8

Offenses agencies in Travis 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.