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Radford city

17,243 people, served by 1 police agency that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Radford city 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 Virginia repealed its presumptions against bail for listed offenses in 2021 and now presumes release.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

NRV Community Corrections & Pretrial Services 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)

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Radford city, 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 Radford city, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kVirginia
Violent crime4754353944250228
Murder11Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.5.9
Rape94910104830
Robbery44131Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.35
Aggravated assault3446252532185157
Property crime1631902091621429901,558
Burglary3110251919119114
Larceny1281571681421158111,298
Motor vehicle theft423161859145
Arson13Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.7

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Radford city, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kVirginia
All offenses outside the crime index6836446466215313,5722,779
Simple assault and intimidation1642091812251751,0901,009
Vandalism1201011099082574533
Fraud7975515546350462
Drug abuse violations2481802001581271,043386
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.2230342528159167
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing2314Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.20
Forgery and counterfeiting132019241710652
Embezzlement13253Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.20
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)677673838
Prostitution and commercialized vice1Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.4.2
Other Group A offenses271940324218386

Offenses agencies in Radford city 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.