Williamson County, Texas

How a case moves here

Williamson 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: Advancing Pretrial lists it as a Public Safety Assessment site since 2021.
Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research, PSA sites list (page modified 2026-06-03)

Cities and towns

Austin979,539
Round Rock127,786
Georgetown85,999
Cedar Park78,301
Leander74,067
Pflugerville65,971
Hutto35,483
Taylor17,136
Liberty Hill8,371
Jarrell3,295
Bartlett1,941
Thorndale1,113
Florence1,061
Granger1,046
Thrall861
Coupland491
Weir434

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Williamson 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 Williamson County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
Violent crime	766	768	772	813	796	120	411
Murder	14	13	8	13	24	2.2	6.1
Rape	217	234	234	236	240	36	53
Robbery	68	78	68	52	49	9.7	67
Aggravated assault	467	443	462	512	483	73	285
Property crime	7,365	8,228	8,272	8,480	6,623	1,196	2,123
Burglary	845	853	1,058	1,183	939	150	303
Larceny	5,980	6,856	6,497	6,644	5,218	958	1,493
Motor vehicle theft	540	519	717	653	466	89	327
Arson	21	30	17	20	16	3.2	9.2

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Williamson County, 2021 to 2025
Offense	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Per 100k	Texas
All offenses outside the crime index	11,154	11,622	11,624	12,039	11,972	1,793	2,904
Simple assault and intimidation	4,176	4,534	4,595	4,909	4,962	712	1,172
Vandalism	1,470	1,618	1,411	1,506	1,605	234	534
Fraud	2,009	1,561	1,786	1,682	1,733	269	312
Drug abuse violations	2,585	2,963	2,838	2,814	2,617	424	602
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.	297	325	309	412	380	53	109
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing	28	20	23	38	33	4.4	17
Forgery and counterfeiting	257	295	315	306	251	44	64
Embezzlement	16	13	21	17	20	2.7	8.6
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)	164	133	119	136	101	20	27
Prostitution and commercialized vice	14	14	15	20	22	2.6	10
Gambling					11	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.9
Other Group A offenses	138	146	192	199	237	28	48
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)	4	2	5	1	5	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	0.8
Human trafficking (not in the total)		4	1	11	4	Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.	1.8

Offenses agencies in Williamson 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.