Kanawha County
172,381 people, served by 28 police agencies that report to the FBI.
How a case moves here
Kanawha County follows West 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 county magistrate sets bail first, with an on-call magistrate for arrests after hours. Magistrates need not be lawyers. Only the circuit court can release a person charged with an offense punishable by life in prison.
W. Va. Code 62-1C-1W. Va. Code 62-1-5- Time to see a judge
An officer must take an arrested person "without unnecessary delay" before a magistrate of the county where the arrest happened. The law sets no number of hours.
W. Va. Code 62-1-5(a)(1)- Money bail
Magistrates and judges may set money bail.
W. Va. Code 62-1C-1- Courts
Circuit courts try all felonies and some misdemeanors and hear appeals from the lower courts. Magistrate courts in every county hear most misdemeanors and hold preliminary hearings in felony cases. Municipal courts hear city ordinance violations.
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Circuit CourtsSupreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Magistrate Courts- Judges and magistrates
Voters elect circuit judges in nonpartisan elections for eight-year terms, and circuit judges must have practiced law for five years. Voters elect magistrates in nonpartisan elections for four-year terms. The state constitution bars requiring magistrates to be lawyers, and the law asks only for a high school education.
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Circuit CourtsSupreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Magistrate CourtsW. Va. Code 50-1-4
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. The name of the Supreme Court-approved risk instrument was not found. Whether jailers release on a bail schedule without a magistrate was not found.
What this county does differently
- Pretrial practice
Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as the Ohio Risk Assessment System Pretrial Assessment Tool (ORAS-PAT).
MediaJustice and Movement Alliance Project, Mapping Pretrial Injustice county map (data as of fall 2021)From Mapping Pretrial Injustice, a map compiled by MediaJustice and the Movement Alliance Project, advocacy groups that campaign against pretrial risk assessment tools. Its data is from fall 2021; CrimeDB uses it only where no court, government, or research list covers the county.
Cities and towns
- Charleston47,421
- South Charleston13,457
- St. Albans10,522
- Dunbar7,254
- Nitro6,853
- Chesapeake town1,702
- Belle town1,611
- Marmet1,524
- Montgomery1,516
- Clendenin town903
- Glasgow town878
- East Bank town850
- Smithers712
- Cedar Grove town489
- Pratt town438
- Handley town418
Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Kanawha County, largest first. Population, the whole place's: Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024.
Police agencies
- Kanawha County Sheriff's OfficeSheriff or county police83,074 served
- Charleston Police DepartmentCity police department45,958 served
- South Charleston Police DepartmentCity police department13,017 served
- St. Albans Police DepartmentCity police department10,175 served
- Dunbar Police DepartmentCity police department7,027 served
- Nitro Police DepartmentCity police department6,309 served
- Marmet Police DepartmentCity police department1,408 served
- Chesapeake Police DepartmentCity police department1,269 served
- Montgomery Police DepartmentCity police department1,183 served
- Belle Police DepartmentCity police department1,083 served
- Clendenin Police DepartmentCity police department870 served
- East Bank Police DepartmentCity police department772 served
- Glasgow Police DepartmentCity police department682 served
- Cedar Grove Police DepartmentCity police department677 served
- Pratt Police DepartmentCity police department455 served
- Handley Police DepartmentCity police department210 served
- Bridge Valley Technical CollegeCollege or university police
- Capitol Protective ServicesOther state agency
- Department of Natural Resources: HeadquartersOther state agency
- Department of Natural Resources: Kanawha CountyOther state agency
- Kanawha County Parks and RecreationOther agency
- Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network TeamOther agency
- State Fire Marshal: Kanawha CountyOther state agency
- State Police, Parkway Authority: Kanawha CountyState police agency
- State Police: Bureau of Criminal Investigation AcademyState police agency
- State Police: QuincyState police agency
- State Police: South CharlestonState police agency
- West Virginia State UniversityCollege or university police
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
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | West Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 923 | 946 | 868 | 690 | 708 | 492 | 277 |
| Murder | 17 | 18 | 20 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 5.9 |
| Rape | 151 | 135 | 120 | 96 | 93 | 71 | 56 |
| Robbery | 65 | 59 | 57 | 38 | 48 | 32 | 12 |
| Aggravated assault | 690 | 734 | 671 | 543 | 559 | 380 | 203 |
| Property crime | 5,043 | 4,997 | 4,491 | 4,080 | 4,221 | 2,716 | 1,213 |
| Burglary | 862 | 843 | 672 | 605 | 629 | 430 | 193 |
| Larceny | 3,676 | 3,728 | 3,396 | 3,162 | 3,312 | 2,055 | 927 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 505 | 426 | 423 | 313 | 280 | 232 | 93 |
| Arson | 46 | 47 | 39 | 35 | 22 | 22 | 12 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | West Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 7,003 | 6,921 | 6,754 | 5,221 | 5,671 | 3,755 | 2,075 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 2,334 | 2,255 | 2,334 | 1,874 | 2,048 | 1,290 | 680 |
| Vandalism | 1,317 | 1,273 | 1,187 | 919 | 952 | 672 | 327 |
| Fraud | 528 | 458 | 498 | 362 | 357 | 262 | 162 |
| Drug abuse violations | 1,808 | 1,991 | 1,826 | 1,295 | 1,556 | 1,008 | 646 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 423 | 354 | 336 | 266 | 271 | 196 | 84 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 184 | 157 | 143 | 141 | 134 | 90 | 39 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 221 | 214 | 216 | 175 | 153 | 116 | 41 |
| Embezzlement | 22 | 23 | 22 | 28 | 32 | 15 | 8.6 |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 66 | 63 | 61 | 74 | 52 | 38 | 33 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 33 | 50 | 41 | 12 | 39 | 21 | 3.1 |
| Gambling | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | ||||
| Other Group A offenses | 67 | 83 | 90 | 75 | 76 | 47 | 51 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1 |
| Human trafficking (not in the total) | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1.8 |
Offenses agencies in Kanawha 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 West 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. West 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.