Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest and crime counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 24, 2026 and September 26, 2026.
Forest Acres, South Carolina, in Richland County, has about 10,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In South Carolina the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Clerk of Court; the statewide criminal history kept by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Forest Acres is kept and how it is seen.
This guide covers the court file, the statewide record, local arrest records, the crimes behind the records, sex offender registry, records requests, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Forest Acres public records, Richland County criminal records, Forest Acres arrest records, Forest Acres warrants, Forest Acres court records, Forest Acres traffic tickets, South Carolina arrest records and South Carolina inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Richland County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Forest Acres is filed in the Richland County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases and civil cases up to $7,500, and the court file, kept by the Clerk of Court, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sccourts.org/courts/courthouse-search/richland (page title: Richland | South Carolina Judicial Branch), phone (803) 576-1950, 1701 Main Street #205 Columbia, SC 29201, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
South Carolina has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The South Carolina Criminal History and Your Own Copy
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. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it. The search is on the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division site.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Forest Acres
The Richland County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Forest Acres (filed by the FBI as Forest Acres Police Department) keep the arrest records in and around Forest Acres: the report and the booking record of each arrest stay with the agency that made it, separate from the court file and from the state repository.
The FBI's agency list also places seven state agencies, three campus police departments, one other agency and one state police unit in Richland County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Cayce Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Richland County, so its arrests are not broken out for Richland County here.
Together, the four agencies in Richland County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,800 arrests to the FBI that year; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The agencies and their counts, year by year, are in Forest Acres arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Forest Acres in 2025
The agency that reports for Forest Acres had 39 violent and 350 property crimes reported for 2025; each one is a report on file with it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The Sex Offender Registry for Forest Acres
Registered sex offenders living in Forest Acres are listed on the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry, run by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division at scor.sled.sc.gov/ConditionsOfUse.Aspx. The registry is public and can be searched online; the county sheriff registers them.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the sheriff's office, or the city police in a city with its own department.
Asking an Agency in Richland County for a Record
An arrest report, a booking record or a local criminal history letter comes from the agency that holds it, not from the court.
Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act a county office must answer a request 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.
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Richland County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Richland County and South Carolina. These criminal records pages from its Richland County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Research Offender -Public Access (www7.richlandcountysc.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Forest Acres?
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.
Can I search Forest Acres criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sccourts.org (page title: Richland | South Carolina Judicial Branch).
How do I get my own South Carolina criminal history?
Through the same CATCH search, run on yourself.
Is this the official Forest Acres 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.