Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones the agency reported to the FBI, through 2024. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 24, 2026 and October 4, 2026.
Clemson, South Carolina, in Pickens County, has about 19,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and its arrests are reported to the FBI by an agency of its own. An arrest in the city leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the Solicitor files charges, a case in the Pickens County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts the agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies and common questions.
Related guides: Clemson public records, Pickens County arrest records, South Carolina arrest records and South Carolina inmate search.
Who Makes Arrests in Clemson
The FBI lists Clemson with an arrest reporting agency of its own, filed as Clemson Police Department. It reported 876 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year. A city is listed separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
Outside the city, the Pickens County Sheriff's Office is the county agency. It reported 1,103 arrests for 2025.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Pickens County: the Pickens County State Transport Police, the Department of Natural Resources in Pickens County, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Pickens County, Pickens County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Pickens County (state police); Clemson University (campus police).
How Many Arrests Clemson Reports
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- Clemson: 876 for 2024, 718 for 2023, 1,151 for 2022, 1,067 for 2021, 835 for 2020 and 756 for 2019.
Clemson's 876 arrests in 2024 were up 22 percent from 718 in 2023.
Across Pickens County, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,655 arrests between them.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Clemson Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Clemson and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.
On an average day in 2023 the jail held about 310 people, up from about 250 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2022, the last year with a capacity figure, was 363 beds, and it ran at 97 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Pickens County Sheriff's Office at pickenscosheriff.org (page title: Pickens County SC Sheriff's Office, Jail & Inmate Information), phone 864-898-2940, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at doc.sc.gov/inmate-search-disclaimer.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Clemson
Whether someone was arrested in Clemson, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Pickens County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Pickens County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at co.pickens.sc.us/news_detail_T8_R51.php).
South Carolina is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the CATCH service lets anyone run a name-based criminal record search online, for $25 a search, through the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Clemson
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act the agency must answer within 10 business days, or 20 for records more than two years old, and it may charge search, retrieval and copying at the agency's actual cost.
- An arrest by the Clemson police: the police department's page SearchSystems verified at clemsoncity.org/409/Support-Services (page title: Support Services | Clemson, SC), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 26, 2026.
- An arrest by the Pickens County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 864-898-2940.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Pickens County Circuit Court, through the court records page at co.pickens.sc.us/news_detail_T8_R51.php.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at co.pickens.sc.us (page title: Records Requests).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
The Pickens County guide covers every agency in the county: Pickens County arrest records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Clemson each year?
Clemson reported 876 arrests to the FBI for 2024, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Clemson booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Pickens County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Clemson?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division: the CATCH service lets anyone run a name-based criminal record search online, for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Clemson?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Clemson police for its own arrests, the Pickens County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff's. Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act the answer is due within 10 business days, or 20 for records more than two years old; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at co.pickens.sc.us.
Is this the official Clemson website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official city, county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.