Pershing County
6,421 people, served by 2 police agencies that report to the FBI. Below: how a case moves here, from arrest to court.
How a case moves here
Pershing County follows Nevada 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
A judge, usually a justice of the peace, decides release at a pretrial release hearing held within 48 hours of custody. Before that hearing, a sheriff or police chief may release people without a hearing where a court's administrative order allows it. For domestic battery, state law fixes the bail amount for anyone released after a 12-hour hold without seeing a judge.
NRS 178.484, 178.4847, 178.4849- Time to see a judge
A court must hold a pretrial release hearing within 48 hours after a person is taken into custody. Separately, if an arrested person has not seen a magistrate within 72 hours, not counting weekends and holidays, the magistrate must ask the prosecutor why and may release the person.
NRS 178.4849NRS 171.178(3)- Money bail
Money bail is allowed only as the least restrictive way to protect the community or secure court appearance. A prosecutor who asks for bail must prove by clear and convincing evidence that it is needed, and the court must state its findings on the record for anything beyond release on recognizance.
NRS 178.4851 (amended 2021)- Courts
District courts try felonies. Justice courts hear all misdemeanors in their townships and no other criminal cases, and municipal courts hear misdemeanors under their city's ordinances.
Nev. Const. art. 6, secs. 5, 9NRS 4.370(3)NRS 5.050(2)- Judges and magistrates
Voters elect district judges on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms. Township voters elect justices of the peace to six-year terms. A justice of the peace must be a lawyer with five years of practice only in townships of 100,000 or more people in counties of 100,000 or more; elsewhere a high school diploma is the education requirement.
Nev. Const. art. 6, sec. 5NRS 293.195NRS 4.010, 4.020, 4.025
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The Supreme Court's order adopting the Nevada Pretrial Risk Assessment (ADKT 0539) sits on nvcourts.gov, which refused our requests (HTTP 403), so the pretrial section rests on a secondary summary. City misdemeanors are often prosecuted by city attorneys, not checked here.
What this county does differently
- Pretrial practice
Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as a state-specific tool (not named in the list).
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