Alabama
What Alabama's records show, how much of the state the FBI's data covers, and where the state publishes its own.
How Alabama handles a case
- Sets bail first
- Magistrate, or a police officer on the bail schedule
- Who that is
- Not a judge
- Release on a schedule
- Jail or police can release on a schedule
- Time to see a judge
- 48 hours
- Money bail
- Allowed
- Risk assessment
- Some counties
- Prosecutor
- District attorney, one per judicial district, elected
- Public defense
- Mixed
- Jails run by
- County sheriff
- Who decides release first
After a warrantless arrest, a police officer may release a person on a bond from the statewide bail schedule. Otherwise a magistrate, often a court clerk who need not be a lawyer, sets bail from the schedule; magistrates can't go above the schedule's top amount without a judge, and can release without money only on misdemeanors. Charges such as capital murder and the serious violent offenses listed in Aniah's Law can be held for a judge.
Ala. R. Crim. P. 4.3Ala. R. Crim. P. 7.2Ala. R. Jud. Admin. 18- Time to see a judge
A judge or magistrate must decide probable cause after a warrantless arrest without undue delay and within 48 hours. If no one does, the person must be released on the schedule's minimum bond or on recognizance, unless the charge isn't bailable.
Ala. R. Crim. P. 4.3(a)(1)(iii)- Money bail
Officers, magistrates, and judges set money bail from a statewide schedule in the court rules. Aniah's Law, a 2022 constitutional amendment, lets judges deny bail outright for a list of violent offenses after a hearing.
Ala. R. Crim. P. 7.2Ala. Code 15-13-3
Crime and arrests
No figures yet
FBI data coverage
- Population covered
- 99%
- of Alabama's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
- Agencies on NIBRS
- 96%
- 434 of 448 agencies send incident detail. The rest send summary counts or nothing.
14 agencies not reporting through NIBRS
- 24th Judicial Circuit Drug and Violent Crime Task ForceOther
- 5th Judicial Circuit Narcotics UnitOther
- Central Alabama Drug Task ForceOther
- Detroit Police DepartmentCity
- District Attorney: 8th CircuitOther
- Marion County Drug Task ForceOther
- Norfolk Southern RailwayOther
- Section Police DepartmentCity
- Spring Hill CollegeUniversity or College
- State Fire MarshalOther State Agency
- Taylor Hardin Secure Medical FacilityOther State Agency
- Trussville Fire Department Fire and Explosion Investigation UnitOther
- Wallace Community College: SelmaUniversity or College
- Webb Police DepartmentCity
Counties and agencies: no data yet
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.
State crime reporting
- Program
- Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), CJIS Division (formerly Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center, ACJIC)
- Incident reporting
- ALEA CJIS Division state crime reporting repository ("Alabama's Crime Reporting System"); no distinct IBR program name confirmed
- Annual report
- Crime in AlabamaLatest edition: 2017. Editions online 1977 to 2017.
- Online portal
- Crime in Alabama (crime.alabama.gov) NIBRS Dashboard and SRS Historic DashboardData 2020 to 2025.
- What changed
- Annual Crime in Alabama PDF ends with 2017; ALEA now points to crime.alabama.gov. The NIBRS dashboard starts 2020 and warns that transition gaps make it unfit for year-to-year or historic comparison. A separate SRS dashboard covers pre-2020 summary data.
Links and years checked 2026-09-26.
Alabama sources
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center · Incidents, Arrests · pdf, html · annual
State UCR/IBR program at ACJIC; annual Crime in Alabama reports published by its Statistical Analysis Center.
Alabama Administrative Office of Courts · Courts · pdf · annual
County pages: circuit and district cases filed, share criminal, disposed. 2004-2023 found; 2024 and 2025 not posted.
Plus 83 national sources, from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, the courts, and others.