Bennington
Town in Bennington County, 15,249 people.
Police
Sheriff in its county: Bennington County Sheriff's Office.
A department is the place's own when its name is the place's and its FBI population fits the place's people (decision city-or-town-is-its-police-department). Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29.
Where it sits
- County
- Bennington County
- People
- 15,249
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
Governments inside it: North Bennington village, Old Bennington village. The town's people include theirs.
How a case moves here
Bennington follows Vermont law on arrests, release, and courts; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.
- Who decides release first
After an arrest, the officer must call a judicial officer, a Superior Court judge or a court clerk, to set temporary release. For charges carrying less than two years, a person the Court Administrator designates may also set bail.
13 V.S.A. 7554(f) and 7559a- Time to see a judge
The rules say an arrested person must be brought before a judicial officer without unnecessary delay, and set no hour limit. The U.S. Supreme Court's 48-hour rule for a probable cause finding applies as the federal floor.
V.R.Cr.P. 3(k)- Money bail
Money bail is allowed. Since 2018, a court may not set bail at first appearance for a cited misdemeanor, and may set at most $200 for a misdemeanor eligible for expungement.
13 V.S.A. 7551(b)
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The state constitution says state's attorney districts are set by law; that each county is one district was not read in the statute. Whether clerks or designees who set bail must be lawyers was not confirmed.
Crime
Offenses reported by Bennington Police Department, Bennington's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.
The crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Vermont |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 52 | 97 | 69 | 59 | 83 | 476 | 214 |
| Murder | 1 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 2.6 | |||
| Rape | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 39 | |
| Robbery | 4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 13 | |
| Aggravated assault | 47 | 85 | 61 | 55 | 79 | 432 | 159 |
| Property crime | 447 | 487 | 385 | 378 | 251 | 2,574 | 1,598 |
| Burglary | 77 | 37 | 52 | 34 | 28 | 301 | 142 |
| Larceny | 348 | 444 | 332 | 338 | 217 | 2,219 | 1,380 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 22 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 54 | 76 |
| Arson | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 6.8 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Vermont |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 636 | 475 | 486 | 500 | 404 | 3,305 | 1,410 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 219 | 142 | 179 | 203 | 171 | 1,208 | 423 |
| Vandalism | 186 | 113 | 114 | 71 | 90 | 759 | 429 |
| Fraud | 76 | 57 | 59 | 58 | 34 | 375 | 215 |
| Drug abuse violations | 121 | 116 | 94 | 112 | 62 | 667 | 187 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 5 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 50 | 17 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 5 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 48 | 39 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 2 | 15 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 49 | 37 |
| Embezzlement | 16 | 3 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 53 | 9.5 |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 13 | |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1.1 | |||
| Other Group A offenses | 5 | 10 | 4 | 24 | 20 | 83 | 39 |
Offenses Bennington 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 Vermont'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. Vermont: 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.