Rhode Island
What Rhode Island's records show, how much of the state the FBI's data covers, and where the state publishes its own.
How Rhode Island handles a case
- Sets bail first
- District Court judge (court open); bail commissioner (court closed)
- Who that is
- Judges and others
- Release on a schedule
- No
- Time to see a judge
- No hour limit set
- Money bail
- Allowed
- Risk assessment
- Statewide
- Prosecutor
- Attorney general, statewide, elected
- Public defense
- Statewide public defender
- Jails run by
- State
- Who decides release first
When court is in session, a District Court judge sets bail. When it is closed, a bail commissioner, a lawyer appointed by the Chief Judge of the District Court, holds a bail hearing at the police station. Bail commissioners can't set bail for offenses punishable by life.
R.I. Gen. Laws 12-10-2- Time to see a judge
The court rules say a person arrested without a warrant must be taken before a District Court judge without unnecessary delay, and set no hour limit. The U.S. Supreme Court's 48-hour rule for a probable cause finding applies as the federal floor.
R.I. Dist. Ct. R. Crim. P. 5(a)- Money bail
Money bail is allowed. The state constitution gives a right to bail by sufficient surety, except for offenses punishable by life and a few listed weapons and drug offenses.
R.I. Const. art. I, s. 9
Crime and arrests
No figures yet
FBI data coverage
- Population covered
- 98%
- of Rhode Island's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
- Agencies on NIBRS
- 97%
- 48 of 49 agencies send incident detail. The rest send summary counts or nothing.
1 agency not reporting through NIBRS
- New Shoreham Police DepartmentCity
Counties and agencies: no data yet
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.
State crime reporting
- Program
- Rhode Island State Police, Uniform Crime Reporting Unit (since 1984)
- Incident reporting
- Yes, a state NIBRS-based program under RIGL 12-24-1.
- Annual report
- Crime in Rhode IslandLatest edition: 2016. Editions online 1993 to 2016.
- Online portal
- Crime in Rhode Island Online (RI UCR Public Portal)Data 2022 to 2026.
- What changed
- The portal says it replaces the Crime in Rhode Island publication; the last PDF on the state site is 2016.
Links and years checked 2026-09-26.
Rhode Island sources
- Rhode Island UCR Online PortalState · RI
Rhode Island State Police · Incidents, Arrests · dashboard · continuous
RI State Police UCR Unit, NIBRS-based program under RIGL 12-24-1. Its public data portal is vendor-hosted at riucr.nibrs.com. Verified in a browser September 2026; returns 403 to scripts.
- Rhode Island Judiciary annual reportState · RI
Rhode Island Judiciary · Courts · pdf · annual
Superior court felonies by county only in about 2004-2012; statewide since 2013.
Plus 83 national sources, from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, the courts, and others.