Maryland
What Maryland's records show, how much of the state the FBI's data covers, and where the state publishes its own.
How Maryland handles a case
- Sets bail first
- District Court commissioner
- Who that is
- Not a judge
- Release on a schedule
- No
- Time to see a judge
- 24 hours
- Money bail
- Limited (2017)
- Risk assessment
- Some counties
- Prosecutor
- State's attorney, one per county, elected
- Public defense
- Statewide public defender
- Jails run by
- Mixed
- Who decides release first
A District Court commissioner, a court officer who is not a judge, decides release at the initial appearance, usually around the clock at central booking. Commissioners can't release people charged with listed serious offenses, such as a crime of violence with a prior conviction for one, or violating a protective order; a judge decides those.
Md. Code, Crim. Proc. 5-202Md. Rule 4-216- Time to see a judge
A person arrested without a warrant must be taken before a District Court judicial officer without unnecessary delay and no later than 24 hours after arrest. A person still held 24 hours after a commissioner sets conditions goes before a judge at the next court session.
Md. Rule 4-212(f)(1) and 4-216(f), as compiled in Maryland Judiciary, Maryland Laws on Pretrial Release- Money bail
Money bail is allowed. Since July 1, 2017, court rules require judges and commissioners to consider what a person can pay and to prefer conditions without money.
Md. Rule 4-216.1; Maryland Judiciary news release on the 2017 pretrial release rules
Crime and arrests
No figures yet
FBI data coverage
- Population covered
- 100%
- of Maryland's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
- Agencies on NIBRS
- 98%
- 152 of 154 agencies send incident detail. The rest send summary counts or nothing.
2 agencies not reporting through NIBRS
- John Hopkins UniversityUniversity or College
- Maryland State PoliceState Police
Counties and agencies: no data yet
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.
State crime reporting
- Program
- Maryland Department of State Police, Central Records Division (Maryland UCR Program)
- Incident reporting
- Maryland NIBRS, run by MSP Central Records Division; no distinct program name
- Annual report
- Crime in Maryland Uniform Crime ReportLatest edition: 2024. Editions online 2017 to 2024, missing 2004-2016 removed from the state site; Wayback Machine has 2004-2008 and 2010-2014 editions from mdsp.maryland.gov/Document Downloads/ (2009, 2015, 2016 not confirmed).
- Online portal
- MSP Public NIBRS Dashboards; GOCPP Crime DashboardData since 2021.
- What changed
- MSP moved report hosting to /media/ IDs, dropping older editions. GOCPP (Maryland Statistical Analysis Center) hosts a Power BI Crime Dashboard (1975-2023) and downloadable crime data.
Links and years checked 2026-09-26.
Maryland sources
- Crime in Maryland Uniform Crime ReportsState · MD
Maryland Department of State Police · Incidents, Arrests · pdf · annual
Annual Crime in Maryland UCR report (PDF) on the MSP documents archive page.
- Downloadable Crime Data and DocumentsState · MD
Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Prevention and Policy · Incidents · csv, xlsx, pdf · annual
State crime statistics downloads; formats not individually verified.
Maryland Judiciary · Courts · csv, dashboard · annual
County (24): circuit court filings and terminations by case type; District Court filings and dispositions; commissioner data. FY2012-FY2025 in one CSV each. Loaded.
Plus 83 national sources, from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, the courts, and others.