McDowell County
16,878 people, served by 14 police agencies that report to the FBI.
How a case moves here
McDowell 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
- Welch3,507
- Gary861
- War628
- Bradshaw town327
- Iaeger town253
- Kimball town231
- Davy town186
- Northfork town169
- Anawalt town109
- Keystone39
Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in McDowell County, largest first. Population, the whole place's: Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024.
Police agencies
- McDowell County Sheriff's OfficeSheriff or county police12,661 served
- Welch Police DepartmentCity police department3,366 served
- No name WV0240500City police department669 served
- War Police DepartmentCity police department530 served
- No name WV0240800City police department241 served
- No name WV0240900City police department236 served
- No name WV0240600City police department199 served
- Davy Police DepartmentCity police department180 served
- No name WV0241200City police department177 served
- No name WV0240100City police department148 served
- No name WV0240400City police department144 served
- Department of Natural Resources: McDowell CountyOther state agency
- State Fire Marshal: McDowell CountyOther state agency
- State Police: WelchState police agency
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 | 19 | 31 | 20 | 27 | 21 | 190 | 277 |
| Murder | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 5.9 |
| Rape | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 40 | 56 |
| Robbery | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 12 | |||
| Aggravated assault | 13 | 23 | 13 | 21 | 16 | 138 | 203 |
| Property crime | 49 | 48 | 85 | 66 | 57 | 491 | 1,213 |
| Burglary | 9 | 17 | 35 | 10 | 19 | 145 | 193 |
| Larceny | 30 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 36 | 299 | 927 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 10 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 47 | 93 |
| Arson | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 12 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | West Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 293 | 339 | 312 | 201 | 195 | 2,156 | 2,075 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 85 | 124 | 113 | 62 | 71 | 732 | 680 |
| Vandalism | 23 | 27 | 40 | 30 | 16 | 219 | 327 |
| Fraud | 6 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 50 | 162 |
| Drug abuse violations | 144 | 121 | 100 | 64 | 74 | 809 | 646 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 22 | 29 | 23 | 14 | 8 | 154 | 84 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 9 | 21 | 15 | 6 | 3 | 87 | 39 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 41 |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 1 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 33 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 3.1 | ||||
| Other Group A offenses | 2 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 12 | 60 | 51 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1 | |||
| Human trafficking (not in the total) | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1.8 |
Offenses agencies in McDowell 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.