Davidson County, Tennessee

How a case moves here

Davidson County follows Tennessee 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 magistrate sets bail first. In many counties that is an appointed judicial commissioner who need not be a lawyer; in others it is a general sessions judge or, when no judge can come within three hours, a court clerk. A defendant can appeal a commissioner's decision to the court.
Tenn. Code Ann. 40-11-106 Tenn. Code Ann. 40-1-111 Tenn. Code Ann. 40-11-150
Time to see a judge: A person arrested must be taken "without unnecessary delay" before the nearest magistrate of the county. The rule sets no number of hours.
Tenn. R. Crim. P. 5(a)
Money bail: Magistrates and judges may set money bail, and the sheriff or a judicial commissioner accepts bonds from approved commercial bonding companies.
Tenn. Code Ann. 40-11-106
Courts: Circuit courts try felonies in each of the 32 judicial districts, except where the legislature created separate criminal courts to take the criminal cases. A general sessions court in every county holds preliminary hearings in felony cases and tries misdemeanors when the defendant gives up a jury trial in the higher court. City municipal courts hear ordinance and traffic violations.
Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, Circuit, Criminal, Chancery & Business Courts Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, General Sessions Courts Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, Municipal Courts
Judges and magistrates: Voters elect circuit, criminal, and general sessions judges for eight-year terms, and all must be lawyers. Bail is often set by judicial commissioners, whom county commissions appoint for terms of up to four years; only the largest counties must require them to be lawyers.
Tenn. Const. art. VI, sec. 4 Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, Circuit, Criminal, Chancery & Business Courts Tennessee Secretary of State, Qualifications for All Elected Offices Tenn. Code Ann. 40-1-111

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. trial_selection is "mixed" because Ballotpedia says trial judges run in partisan elections unless a county opts for nonpartisan ones; no statute was read for this. Which counties use judicial commissioners versus judges or clerks, and whether any county uses a misdemeanor bail schedule, was not confirmed.

What this county does differently

Pretrial practice

Mapping Pretrial Injustice listed its risk tool in 2021 as a county-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

Reported offenses and arrests for Davidson County, counted by the agencies that serve it, appear here once the county series is published. NIBRS reporting here started as early as January 1997.