Iowa

What Iowa's records show, how much of the state the FBI's data covers, and where the state publishes its own.

How Iowa handles a case

Sets bail first: Jail or police on the statewide bond schedule when court is closed; magistrate at initial appearance
Who that is: Judges and others
Release on a schedule: Jail or police can release on a schedule
Time to see a judge: No hour limit set
Money bail: Allowed
Risk assessment: None statewide
Prosecutor: County attorney, one per county, elected
Public defense: Statewide public defender
Jails run by: County sheriff

Who decides release first: When court is not in session, jail or police staff may release a person under the judicial council's statewide bond schedule before the person sees a magistrate. A judge or magistrate may also order release by phone. Otherwise a magistrate sets release at the initial appearance and must put the order in writing.
Iowa Code 804.21 Iowa Code 811.2
Time to see a judge: After a warrantless arrest, police must take the person before the nearest or most accessible magistrate without unnecessary delay. Iowa law sets no number of hours.
Iowa Code 804.22
Money bail: Iowa courts may set money bail as a condition of release, along with release on recognizance, unsecured bonds, and other conditions.
Iowa Code 811.2

Crime and arrests

No figures yet

Reported offenses and arrests per 100,000 people, year by year, and how Iowa compares with the country. They will come from the FBI's state totals.

FBI data coverage

Population covered: 97%; of Iowa's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
Agencies on NIBRS: 98%; 280 of 284 agencies send incident detail. The rest send summary counts or nothing.

4 agencies not reporting through NIBRS

Arnolds Park Police DepartmentCity
Donnellson Police DepartmentCity
Iowa Department of Public SafetyState Police
Union Pacific Railroad PoliceOther

Counties and agencies: no data yet

Every agency in Iowa by county, with the year each began sending incident detail to the FBI. They will come from the FBI's agency list and its NIBRS master files.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.

State crime reporting

Program: Iowa Department of Public Safety, Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program
Incident reporting: Iowa incident-based reporting (IBR) since the early 1990s; new state crime database (I-Crime) built in 2021
Annual report: Iowa Uniform Crime Report (no longer published; replaced by the Crime in Iowa portal)Latest edition: 2009. Editions online 1995 to 2009, missing 1996, 2002.
Online portal: Crime in Iowa (Crime Data in Iowa Public Portal)Data since 2016.
What changed: Static annual publications ended; the portal says its reports replace the static publications. In 2021 Iowa updated its tech spec and built a new database, migrating 2016-2020 data. Since 2021 an agency's data is published only after the agency is certified.

Links and years checked 2026-09-26.

Iowa sources

2 sources

Crime in IowaState · IA
Iowa Department of Public Safety · Incidents, Arrests, Hate crime · dashboard, html · continuous
State UCR/NIBRS database with an ad hoc query tool; since 2021 an agency's data is published only after the agency is certified.
Iowa Judicial Branch annual reportsState · IA
Iowa Judicial Branch · Courts · pdf · annual
Statewide serious criminal and simple misdemeanor totals only; no county trial court statistics found.

Plus 83 national sources, from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, the courts, and others.