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 on September 24, 2026.
Beaufort County, South Carolina, has about 202,000 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 Beaufort County 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: Beaufort County public records, Beaufort County arrest records, Beaufort County warrants, Beaufort County inmate search, Beaufort County court records, South Carolina arrest records and South Carolina inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Beaufort County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Beaufort County is filed in the Beaufort 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.
For Beaufort County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at beaufortcountysc.gov/clerk-of-court/index.html (page title: Clerk of Court), phone (843) 255-5710, 102 Ribaut Road Suite 208 Beaufort, SC 29902, Monday- Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., 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 Beaufort County
The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Bluffton, Port Royal and Beaufort keep the arrest records in Beaufort County: 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 one state police unit, five state agencies and one campus police department in Beaufort County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The Hardeeville Police Department and the Yemassee Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Beaufort County, so their arrests are not broken out for Beaufort County here.
Together, the three agencies in Beaufort County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,559 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 Beaufort County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Beaufort County in 2025
The four agencies in Beaufort County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 366 violent and 1,943 property crimes to the FBI that year; the three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 886 crimes in 2025 against 1,188 in 2024. Each reported crime is a report on file with the agency that took it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The full crime section, agency by agency, is on the Beaufort County public records guide.
The Sex Offender Registry for Beaufort County
Registered sex offenders living in Beaufort County 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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Beaufort County and South Carolina. These criminal records pages from its Beaufort County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Sex Offenders (beaufort.scor.sled.sc.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Beaufort 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.
Can I search Beaufort County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at beaufortcountysc.gov (page title: Clerk of Court).
How do I get my own South Carolina criminal history?
Through the same CATCH search, run on yourself.
Is this the official Beaufort 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.