Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. 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 2, 2026.
Aiken County, South Carolina, has about 179,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, eight city agencies and eight campus, state or other agencies. An arrest 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 Aiken County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts each agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Aiken County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Aiken County
The Aiken County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Aiken County. It reported 2,160 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists eight cities in Aiken County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Aiken, 32,694 residents: 1,309 arrests reported for 2025.
- North Augusta, 26,395 residents: 430 arrests reported for 2025.
- Burnettown, 3,226 residents: 6 arrests reported for 2025.
- New Ellenton, 2,354 residents: 32 arrests reported for 2025.
- Jackson, 1,635 residents: 7 arrests reported for 2025.
- Wagener, 691 residents: 22 arrests reported for 2025.
- Salley, 351 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2024.
- Perry, 209 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2025.
A city on that list is reported separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Aiken County: United States Department of Energy Savannah River Plant, the Aiken County State Transport Police, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Aiken County, Aiken County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and two more (state agency); the University of South Carolina at Aiken (campus police); the Highway Patrol in Aiken County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Aiken County
The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts 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.
- Aiken County Sheriff's Office: 2,160 for 2025, 2,349 for 2024, 2,048 for 2023, 1,847 for 2022 and 967 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Aiken: 1,309 for 2025, 1,215 for 2024, 1,551 for 2023, 1,271 for 2021, 1,240 for 2020 and 1,463 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- North Augusta: 430 for 2025, 390 for 2024, 487 for 2023, 585 for 2022, 645 for 2021 and 682 for 2020.
- New Ellenton: 32 for 2025, 36 for 2024, 44 for 2023, 48 for 2022, 17 for 2021 and 24 for 2020.
- Wagener: 22 for 2025, 20 for 2023, 0 for 2020 and 3 for 2019; 2021, 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Jackson: 7 for 2025, 9 for 2023, 17 for 2021, 19 for 2020 and 15 for 2019; 2022 and 2024 are missing months.
- Burnettown: 6 for 2025, 18 for 2024, 14 for 2023, 10 for 2022, 19 for 2021 and 26 for 2020.
- Perry: 4 for 2025 and 0 for 2023; 2024 is missing months.
- Salley: 0 for 2024 and 0 for 2023.
Together, the eight agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,970 arrests that year. The five of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3,937 in 2025 against 4,008 in 2024, down 1.8 percent.
Through July 2026, the seven agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,385 arrests, against 2,308 in the same months of 2025.
Salley reported only part of 2025 (9 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Aiken County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Aiken County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2021 the jail held about 380 people, down from about 400 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 376 beds, and it ran at 107 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 Aiken County Sheriff's Office at aikencountysheriff.net/185/Inmate-Search (page title: Inmate Search | Aiken County Sheriff, SC), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 429), 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 Aiken County
Whether someone was arrested in Aiken County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Aiken County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Aiken County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at aikencountysc.gov/292/Criminal-Cases).
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 Aiken County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 Aiken County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Aiken, North Augusta, Burnettown, New Ellenton, Jackson, Wagener or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by United States Department of Energy Savannah River Plant, the University of South Carolina at Aiken or the Aiken County State Transport Police: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Aiken County Circuit Court, through the court records page at aikencountysc.gov/292/Criminal-Cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at aikensc.justfoia.com/publicportal (page title: Aiken, SC Public Portal | JustFOIA).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Aiken County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for eight of the ten cities in Aiken County: Aiken, North Augusta, Burnettown, New Ellenton, Jackson, Wagener, Salley and Perry. Monetta and Windsor have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Aiken County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Aiken County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- North Augusta (26,395)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Aiken County each year?
The Aiken County Sheriff's Office reported 2,160 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the eight agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 3,970 between them.
Where are people arrested in Aiken County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Aiken County?
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 Aiken County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Aiken County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. 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 aikensc.justfoia.com/publicportal.
Is this the official Aiken County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.