Montana
What Montana's records show, how much of the state the FBI's data covers, and where the state publishes its own.
How Montana handles a case
- Sets bail first
- Judge at the initial appearance, usually a justice of the peace or city judge
- Who that is
- A judge
- 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
- Public Safety Assessment (some counties)
- Prosecutor
- County attorney, one per county, elected
- Public defense
- Statewide public defender
- Jails run by
- County sheriff
- Who decides release first
Each judge may post a bail schedule for offenses in that court, and a peace officer may accept bail under it without a judge. Otherwise the judge at the initial appearance, most often a justice of the peace or city judge, sets release.
MCA 46-9-302- Time to see a judge
An arrested person must be taken without unnecessary delay before the nearest and most accessible judge. The statute sets no hour limit.
MCA 46-7-101- Money bail
Money bail is allowed, and judges may post bail schedules that peace officers apply at the jail.
MCA 46-9-302
Crime and arrests
No figures yet
FBI data coverage
- Population covered
- 100%
- of Montana's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
- Agencies on NIBRS
- 100%
- 114 of 114 agencies send incident detail.
Counties and agencies: no data yet
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.
State crime reporting
- Program
- Montana Board of Crime Control, Statistical Analysis Center (runs MTIBRS)
- Incident reporting
- MTIBRS (Montana Incident-Based Reporting System)
- Annual report
- Crime in Montana (ended with the 2020 edition)Latest edition: 2020. Editions online 1972 to 2020.
- Online portal
- MBCC Crime DashboardsData since 2005.
- What changed
- MBCC is moving from annual Crime in Montana reports to Tableau dashboards; all data from 2005 forward is to be in Tableau. Editions 2002-2003 and 2004-2005 through 2014-2015 are labeled as two-year spans.
Links and years checked 2026-09-26.
Montana sources
- MBCC Crime DashboardsState · MT
Montana Board of Crime Control · Incidents, Arrests · dashboard · annual
MBCC SAC runs the MTIBRS repository; Tableau dashboards from 2005 onward replace the annual Crime in Montana reports.
Montana Office of the Court Administrator · Courts · pdf · annual
District court criminal filings by county (56), 2003-2025; limited courts by court. Filings only.
Plus 83 national sources, from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, the courts, and others.