South Dakota

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

How South Dakota handles a case

Sets bail first: Clerk magistrate on the presiding judge's fine and bond schedule
Who that is: Not a judge
Release on a schedule: Unknown
Time to see a judge: No hour limit set
Money bail: Allowed
Risk assessment: Public Safety Assessment (some counties)
Prosecutor: State's attorney, one per county, elected
Public defense: Mixed
Jails run by: County sheriff

Who decides release first: A clerk magistrate, a court clerk who is not a lawyer, usually sets the first bond or grants personal recognizance from the presiding judge's fine and bond schedule, for felonies as well as misdemeanors. Murder, first-degree manslaughter, and kidnapping go to a circuit or magistrate judge. Domestic abuse bond is set by a magistrate judge or circuit judge.
SDCL 16-12C-10 SDCL 16-2-21 UJS Fine and Bond Schedule for Use by Clerk Magistrates
Time to see a judge: Police must take an arrested person before the nearest available committing magistrate without unnecessary delay. South Dakota law sets no number of hours.
SDCL 23A-4-1
Money bail: South Dakota courts may set money bond, and clerk magistrates set it from a dollar range in the bond schedule.
SDCL 16-12C-10 UJS Fine and Bond Schedule for Use by Clerk Magistrates

Crime and arrests

No figures yet

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

FBI data coverage

Population covered: 89%; of South Dakota's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
Agencies on NIBRS: 100%; 141 of 141 agencies send incident detail.

Counties and agencies: no data yet

Every agency in South Dakota 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: South Dakota Office of Attorney General, Division of Criminal Investigation, Criminal Statistical Analysis Center
Incident reporting: State NIBRS repository on Optimum SWIFT (SDNibrs@state.sd.us); no brand name found
Annual report: Crime in South DakotaLatest edition: 2025. Editions online 1975 to 2025, missing 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982.
Online portal: South Dakota Crime (Crime in South Dakota and Reports sections)
What changed: Editions through 2020 were also posted at atg.sd.gov/docs/; the full archive now lives on the vendor-hosted portal.

Links and years checked 2026-09-26.

South Dakota sources

2 sources

Crime in South Dakota PublicationsState · SD
South Dakota Office of Attorney General, Division of Criminal Investigation · Incidents, Arrests · pdf, dashboard · annual
Crime in South Dakota NIBRS publications, vendor-hosted and linked from atg.sd.gov. Verified September 2026.
South Dakota Unified Judicial System annual reportState · SD
South Dakota Unified Judicial System · Courts · pdf · annual
Criminal filings by circuit (7) now; county tables FY2001-FY2015 survive on Wayback only.

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