The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is the central repository, and its Public Dissemination Unit runs Citizens Access to Criminal Histories, CATCH, which lets anyone view and print South Carolina criminal records from a name based search. What makes the product different from a court index is its foundation: every arrest in a CATCH report is supported by fingerprints taken by a law enforcement agency or detention center under section 23-3-120, so the search is a name lookup against a fingerprint file rather than a scrape of dockets.
The price is $25 per check, non refundable, with most cards accepted, and the site carries two fee notes that overlap: a $1 convenience fee for online searches in its terms, and a notice that from July 1, 2026 online customers pay a service fee of $1.43 on each $25 report and $1.14 on each $8 report, none of which SLED keeps. Charitable organizations that meet the statutory requirements pay $8, and criminal records checks on prospective teachers and substitutes go to school districts free. For the sheriff who booked the person and the clerk who holds the case, start at the South Carolina county pages.
- $25, $8 or free: the CATCH fee for the public, the rate for qualifying charities, and the price for school districts checking teachers, plus a $1.43 online service fee from July 1, 2026.
- Starts with: CATCH needs a starts with match on last name, first name and date of birth, searches a social security number when given, and returns Special Processing Required when several people match.
- $250, $25 and $35: the solicitor's administrative fee, the SLED verification fee and the clerk filing fee on an expungement, all three waived when a charge was dismissed or acquitted.
- Four weeks: the time SLED asks for after it receives an order for destruction of arrest records before the charge disappears, with no confirmation sent.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Carolina's own systems: the SLED CATCH criminal records search, the SLED Criminal Justice Information Services page with the expungement questions, the SLED name change criminal records check form, the South Carolina Judicial Branch case records search, the Judicial Branch expungement application process page, South Carolina Code chapter 22 of title 17, including section 17-22-940 on expungement fees, South Carolina Code chapter 1 of title 17, including section 17-1-40 on destruction of records after dismissal, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What a CATCH report contains and leaves out
CATCH covers South Carolina only, and SLED says a national check is allowed only where a law specifically authorizes it. Information on wanted persons is not in a CATCH report, and neither are registered sex offenders, who are found instead through the free state registry that the South Carolina sex offender registry guide covers. The site is frank that a name based search can produce a false positive or a false negative when the name or birth date on a record differs from the one entered, as with an alias or a maiden name, and that fingerprints may be the only way to identify such a record subject; SLED runs fingerprint based checks only when a statute requires them.
When several subjects match, the user sees a Special Processing Required message and the Public Dissemination Unit, reachable at 803-896-1443 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., handles it. The unit also processes refunds and special handling, and the South Carolina background check guide covers the statutory fingerprint checks for schools, care facilities and licenses.
Ordering by mail and the name change check
SLED takes criminal records checks by mail with no convenience fee, paid by business check, certified check, cashier's check or money order, never a personal check or cash, sent with the criminal records check form and a self addressed stamped envelope to the SLED Records Department at post office box 21398 in Columbia, zip code 29221-1398. A requester who needs the result notarized or certified must say so on the request. State agencies, which no longer issue paper checks, follow a Treasurer's Office memorandum the site links.
A person changing their name files a separate name change criminal records check: the form, a notarized affidavit under section 15-49-20, a set of applicant prints on a blue fingerprint card taken by a police agency or a commercial service at its own charge, a return envelope and exactly $25 by business, certified or cashier's check or money order to SLED. That check is run on the fingerprints and searches only arrests made by South Carolina state and local agencies.
Expungement runs through the solicitor
SLED neither begins an expungement nor removes a charge on its own initiative; it acts only when a court sends an Order for Destruction of Arrest Records. A person applies to the solicitor's office in the county where the charge arose, or directly to the magistrate or municipal court when that court dismissed the charge, and the Judicial Branch publishes the application process separately for general sessions, summary courts and juvenile records.
Section 17-22-940 sets the money: the applicant pays the solicitor a non refundable administrative fee of $250 per order, kept by that office even if the charge later proves ineligible or the solicitor refuses consent, a $25 SLED verification fee by certified check or money order, and a $35 clerk of court filing fee, refunded only if the charge is statutorily ineligible. Each order covers one charge unless several charges came out of a single incident, in which case one set of the three fees applies.
The exemptions are the part most people need. An applicant seeking to expunge general sessions charges under section 17-1-40, because the charge was dismissed, discharged, nolle prossed or ended in acquittal, pays no $250 fee, no SLED verification fee and no clerk filing fee, unless the dismissal was part of a plea deal on other charges. Each solicitor's office must keep a private donation account that can cover up to half of the $250 for other applicants, first come first served, and may waive the fee entirely for a victim of identity theft.
The solicitor helps complete the order form, collects separate certified checks for each agency, confirms eligibility with SLED, gathers the signatures, files the order with the clerk and sends copies to the arresting agency, the jail, the summary court and SLED. A person who wants speed asks the solicitor or the issuing court, since SLED cannot expedite.
What happens after the order reaches SLED
The CJIS expungement questions ask for four weeks from receipt of the order before the charge is removed, and SLED sends no confirmation because of the volume; the way to verify is to buy a CATCH report or mail a request. If a charge still shows months later, the person mails the certified true copy of the order, the recently purchased records check and a stamped return envelope to the SLED Expungement Department at the same Columbia post office box, and SLED expunges the charge and returns an updated check in the envelope when the original check was bought within the past 30 days.
A charge gone from SLED but still on a commercial background check has to be disputed with that company, since SLED holds only the state repository, and a charge still on the FBI summary is a matter to raise with SLED directly.
Section 17-1-40 describes what destruction means. After an expungement for a dismissed, discharged or acquitted charge, the arrest and booking record, bench warrants, mug shots and fingerprints must be destroyed and no municipal, county or state agency may keep evidence of the charge, except that law enforcement and prosecution agencies keep the arrest record and the unredacted incident reports under seal for three years and 120 days, longer for investigations or litigation, and detention facilities keep booking records under seal for the same period.
An agency that intentionally violates the rule is in contempt of court, an employee who leaks a sealed incident report faces a misdemeanor fine of up to $100 or 30 days, and no agency may charge a fee for the destruction.
The public index, county by county
The Judicial Branch case records search routes to a public index for each of the 46 counties, with Charleston County running its own site for circuit and magistrate courts and a separate one for the City of Charleston municipal court, and Greenville County adding the City of Mauldin municipal court. Cookies, JavaScript and sometimes a pop-up exception are needed to open a case, some municipal courts appear in the index and most do not, and since January 1, 2026 home address information no longer displays for new or existing cases.
The index shows what became of an arrest, which CATCH shows from the fingerprint side, and the South Carolina court records guide covers the clerks of court and the summary courts behind it.
Custody records and the sheriff's file
A fresh arrest appears first on the county detention center roster kept by the sheriff, and the Department of Corrections keeps the sentenced population, both covered in the South Carolina inmate search guide. The sheriff and the arresting police department hold the incident report and the booking photograph, which under the Freedom of Information Act are the records a requester reads with the subject's name redacted once an expungement has been ordered.
SLED holds the fingerprint based history and the expungement file, the clerk of court holds the case, and SLED's South Carolina Information Exchange replicates local incident reports and citations for authorized users, not for the public. For a person the sheriff is seeking, South Carolina wants and warrants covers the sources, and the South Carolina criminal records guide maps every office.
Questions about South Carolina arrest records
Related South Carolina records
South Carolina readers can continue with the South Carolina background check guide for statutory fingerprint checks, South Carolina court records for the county public index, South Carolina inmate search for detention centers and the Department of Corrections, the South Carolina sex offender registry guide, the South Carolina public records law guide for the Freedom of Information Act, and the South Carolina county pages for every sheriff and clerk of court.