Pinellas County, Florida

How a case moves here

Pinellas County follows Florida 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: For many charges, the jail releases a person on bond from the Florida Supreme Court's statewide uniform bond schedule before any hearing, a rule in place since January 1, 2024. Everyone else waits for a county or circuit judge at first appearance. Serious felonies, people already on release or probation, and other listed cases can't be released on the schedule.
Fla. Stat. 903.011 Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.130
Time to see a judge: Every arrested person not already released must go before a judicial officer within 24 hours of arrest. The chief judge assigns county or circuit judges to hold these hearings, and a prosecutor and public defender must attend.
Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.130(a)
Money bail: Judges and the statewide schedule set money bonds. A circuit's chief judge may raise schedule amounts but can't lower them without the Supreme Court's approval.
Fla. Stat. 903.011
Courts: Florida has two trial courts. Circuit courts try felonies, and a county court in each county tries misdemeanors and traffic cases. The constitution bars cities and counties from creating any other courts, so Florida has no municipal or justice courts.
Fla. Const. art. V, sec. 1, 5, 6
Judges and magistrates: Voters elect circuit and county judges in nonpartisan elections for six-year terms; the governor fills vacancies by appointment. Circuit judges must have been Florida lawyers for five years. County judges must also be lawyers, but in counties of 40,000 people or fewer they need only be current members of the bar.
Fla. Const. art. V, sec. 8, 10 Fla. Stat. 105.011

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The Rule 3.130 text read is the 2008 appendix on the court's site; the 24-hour rule is unchanged in later versions as far as checked, but the current rulebook was not opened. Conflict cases go to the state's regional conflict counsel offices and private lawyers; not re-read this pass. How many counties run jails outside the sheriff was not counted.

What this county does differently

Pretrial practice

Florida's legislative research office (OPPAGA) counted a county pretrial release program here in 2024, and Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as a state-specific tool (not named in the list).

Florida OPPAGA, County Pretrial Release Programs: Calendar Year 2024, Report 25-10, Exhibit 2 (December 2025)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.

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 and arrests

No figures yet

Reported offenses and arrests for Pinellas County, counted by the agencies that serve it, appear here once the county series is published. NIBRS reporting here started as early as January 2021.