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Douglas County

46,473 people, served by 4 police agencies that report to the FBI.

How a case moves here

Douglas County follows Washington 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 judge or court commissioner sets release at the preliminary appearance. Before that, a district or municipal court may adopt its own bail schedule that the jail applies; adopting one is optional and court by court.

CrRLJ 3.2CrR 3.2.1RCW 10.99.045RCW 3.42.010
Time to see a judge

A judge must decide probable cause within 48 hours of an arrest, counting weekends and holidays. The person must then appear before the court by the close of business on the next court day.

CrR 3.2.1(a), (c), (d)
Money bail

Court rules presume release on personal recognizance except in capital cases. A court may require a bond only after finding a likely failure to appear or a danger, must use the least restrictive conditions, and must consider the person's financial resources when setting a bond.

CrR 3.2
Courts

Each county has a superior court, which tries felonies. District courts hear misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors and can hold felony preliminary hearings, and municipal courts hear cases under city ordinances.

RCW 2.08.060RCW 3.66.060RCW 35.20.030
Judges and magistrates

Voters elect superior court judges on a nonpartisan ballot to four-year terms. District judges are also elected for four years and must be lawyers, except in districts under 5,000 people where a lay candidate passed the qualifying exam by 2003. Mayors appoint municipal judges for four-year terms unless the city makes the job elective.

RCW 2.08.060, 2.08.070RCW 29A.52.231RCW 3.34.060RCW 3.50.040, 3.50.050

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The pretrial section rests on a secondary summary. Which counties use commissioners for preliminary appearances was not checked.

What this county does differently

Nothing county-specific yet

Whether Douglas County runs a pretrial services office, uses a risk assessment, or has its own bail schedule appears here once a cited source says so.

Cities and towns

Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Douglas 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 Douglas County, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kWashington
Violent crime254443464791339
Murder231Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.4.2
Rape12129592140
Robbery345961273
Aggravated assault102827293156222
Property crime5436054724783951,1102,753
Burglary871261028372209459
Larceny3984043213412877801,799
Motor vehicle theft5875495436121495
Arson311Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.17

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by agencies in Douglas County, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kWashington
All offenses outside the crime index5646566206116321,3732,513
Simple assault and intimidation216262217206216497795
Vandalism181151167163152362928
Fraud5772718384163305
Drug abuse violations1728858989137184
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.27443124447684
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing11231714123482
Forgery and counterfeiting2351151294943
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)271588153336
Other Group A offenses510912112149

Offenses agencies in Douglas 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 Washington'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. Washington: 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.