Bristol
Town in Addison County, 3,778 people.
Police
Sheriff in its county: Addison 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
- Addison County
- People
- 3,778
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
How a case moves here
Bristol 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 Bristol Police Department, Bristol'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 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 220 |
| Murder | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 2.9 | |||||
| Rape | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 38 | |||||
| Robbery | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 14 | |||||
| Aggravated assault | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 165 |
| Property crime | 11 | 4 | 14 | 15 | 10 | 286 | 1,647 |
| Burglary | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 131 | |||
| Larceny | 10 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 253 | 1,440 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 1 | 1 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 76 | ||
| Arson | 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 | 30 | 7 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 339 | 1,381 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 11 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 166 | 423 |
| Vandalism | 11 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 406 |
| Fraud | 5 | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 208 | ||
| Drug abuse violations | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 185 | ||||
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 41 | ||||
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 38 | ||||
| Embezzlement | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 9.3 | ||||
| Other Group A offenses | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 41 |
Offenses Bristol 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, 2022 to 2025 added together, full years only, beside Vermont's rate over the same years. – means too few for a rate: the count is under 20.
* 2021: reported for part of the year only, so the count is short and the year is left out of the rate.
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.