Wisconsin

Sets bail first

Police or jail on the statewide misdemeanor bail schedule; circuit court commissioner or circuit judge at initial appearance

Who that is

Judges and others

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

District attorney, one per county, elected

Public defense

Statewide public defender

Jails run by

County sheriff

Who decides release first

For most misdemeanors, a police officer or the jail can take cash bail under the statewide misdemeanor bail schedule. For felonies, a circuit court commissioner or circuit judge sets bail at the initial appearance. Wisconsin bars paid bail bondsmen, so sureties must be unpaid people.

Wis. Stat. 969.07Wis. Stat. 969.065Wis. Stat. 969.12Wis. Stat. 757.69(1)(b)Wis. Stat. 968.075(2m), (5)

Time to see a judge

A person who is arrested must be taken before a judge within a reasonable time in the county where the offense is charged. Wisconsin law sets no number of hours.

Wis. Stat. 970.01(1)

Money bail

Wisconsin courts may set cash bail. A surety must be a state resident and an unpaid natural person, so commercial bail bonds are not allowed.

Wis. Stat. 969.12

Population covered

97%

of Wisconsin's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.

Agencies on NIBRS

92%

429 of 464 agencies send incident detail. The rest send summary counts or nothing.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.

Program

Wisconsin Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Information and Analysis (BJIA), Wisconsin UCR Program

Incident reporting

WIBRS (Wisconsin Incident-Based Reporting System), submission site ucr.wisdoj.gov

Annual report

Annual crime reportNo annual report found online.

Online portal

Wisconsin DOJ UCR Dashboards (Offenses, Arrests, Arrest Demographics, Offense and Arrest by Agency, Sex Offense)

What changed

The Office of Justice Assistance published annual Crime in Wisconsin and Arrests in Wisconsin reports (OJP holds the 2010 editions; older editions titled Crime and Arrests go back to the 1970s). UCR moved to DOJ BJIA in August 2014. The 2016 dashboard page says the dashboards replace static tables and reports. WIBRS incident-level dashboards launched August 13, 2020 with 2015-2019 data.

Links and years checked 2026-09-26.

• Wisconsin DOJ Dashboards and DataState · WI

  Wisconsin Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Information and Analysis · Incidents, Arrests, Use of force · dashboard, csv · annual

  State UCR/NIBRS repository; interactive crime and arrest dashboards with raw datasets.

• Wisconsin circuit court statisticsState · WI

  Wisconsin Director of State Courts · Courts · xlsx, pdf, dashboard · annual

  County (72): filed, begin pending, opened, disposed, end pending for felony, misdemeanor, criminal traffic; dispositions by type, age, clearance. 2015-2025 in hidden Raw Data sheets. Loaded.

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