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Henrico County

342,775 people, served by 5 police agencies that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Henrico County follows Virginia 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 decides bail first. Magistrates are court officers, not judges, and need not be lawyers. The law presumes release unless the magistrate finds the person likely to flee or dangerous.

Va. Code 19.2-119Va. Code 19.2-120Va. Code 19.2-37
Time to see a judge

Police must bring a person arrested without a warrant "forthwith" before a magistrate. The law sets no number of hours.

Va. Code 19.2-82
Money bail

Magistrates and judges may set secured money bonds. Virginia repealed its presumptions against bail for listed offenses in 2021 and now presumes release.

Va. Code 19.2-120
Courts

Circuit courts try felonies and hear misdemeanor appeals. General district courts hear misdemeanors and traffic cases and hold preliminary hearings in felony cases. Juvenile and domestic relations district courts hear cases involving minors and family members.

Virginia's Judicial System, General District Court
Judges and magistrates

The General Assembly elects circuit judges for eight-year terms and district judges for six-year terms; all must be lawyers. Magistrates are not judges. The Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia appoints them after consulting the chief circuit judges, and magistrates appointed since July 1, 2008 need a bachelor's degree, not a law degree.

Va. Const. art. VI, sec. 7Va. Code 16.1-69.9Va. Code 16.1-69.15Va. Code 19.2-35Va. Code 19.2-37

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Virginia's independent cities stand in for counties: each elects its own Commonwealth's attorney and sheriff. Whether every locality has a pretrial services agency was not confirmed.

What this county does differently

Pretrial practice

Henrico County Community Corrections Program serves this locality with pretrial services, and Virginia's local pretrial agencies use the VPRAI.

Virginia DCJS, Community-Based Probation and Pretrial Services Agency Directory, locality cross reference (December 2025)Virginia DCJS, Report on Pretrial Services Agencies, FY2025 (January 2026)

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 Henrico County, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kVirginia
Violent crime692691667600550190228
Murder2432252376.65.9
Rape48553544201230
Robbery137114109881023335
Aggravated assault483490498445421139157
Property crime7,1048,2177,5857,1276,2242,1561,558
Burglary388538475367325124114
Larceny6,2417,1046,3876,2535,5471,8751,298
Motor vehicle theft475575723507352156145
Arson41323934209.97

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Henrico County, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kVirginia
All offenses outside the crime index8,4729,1098,8668,5057,3392,5142,779
Simple assault and intimidation1,9082,4052,4112,3221,8786491,009
Vandalism1,9212,1391,9211,8371,495554533
Fraud2,1102,0511,9981,8791,763583462
Drug abuse violations1,5361,3201,3091,2831,169393386
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.503538520534470152167
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing54526981571920
Forgery and counterfeiting1642573422152497352
Embezzlement90947772532320
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)19342319166.638
Prostitution and commercialized vice85102827746234.2
Gambling116310Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.0.9
Other Group A offenses811161141231333486
Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total)23612Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.0.9
Human trafficking (not in the total)17321912125.50.9

Offenses agencies in Henrico 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 Virginia'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. Virginia: 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.