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.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, has about 264,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and seven 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 Berkeley 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: Berkeley County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Berkeley County
The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Berkeley County. It reported 2,197 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists five cities in Berkeley County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Goose Creek, 50,352 residents: 1,111 arrests reported for 2025.
- Hanahan, 21,983 residents: 458 arrests reported for 2025.
- Moncks Corner, 18,359 residents: 523 arrests reported for 2025.
- St. Stephen, 1,592 residents: 37 arrests reported for 2023.
- Jamestown, 73 residents: 0 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 Charleston Police Department and the Summerville Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Berkeley County, so their arrests are not broken out for Berkeley County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Berkeley County: the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Berkeley County, the Berkeley County State Transport Police, Santee Cooper, Berkeley County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and two more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Berkeley County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Berkeley County
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.
- Berkeley County Sheriff's Office: 2,197 for 2025, 1,905 for 2024, 2,043 for 2023, 1,783 for 2022, 1,815 for 2021 and 1,907 for 2020.
- Goose Creek: 1,111 for 2025, 1,126 for 2024, 943 for 2023, 870 for 2022, 689 for 2021 and 851 for 2020.
- Moncks Corner: 523 for 2025, 527 for 2024, 505 for 2023, 452 for 2022, 508 for 2021 and 622 for 2020.
- Hanahan: 458 for 2025, 282 for 2024, 414 for 2023, 448 for 2022, 429 for 2021 and 348 for 2020.
- Jamestown: 0 for 2025, 2 for 2024, 8 for 2023, 11 for 2022, 5 for 2021 and 10 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- St. Stephen: 37 for 2023, 65 for 2022 and 76 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,289 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 4,289 in 2025 against 3,842 in 2024, up 12 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,478 arrests, against 2,516 in the same months of 2025.
St. Stephen reported only part of 2025 (4 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Berkeley County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Berkeley 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 360 people, down from about 390 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 291 beds, and it ran at 133 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 Berkeley County Sheriff's Office at sheriff.berkeleycountysc.gov/report/inmate-lookup (page title: Inmate Lookup | Berkeley County Sheriff's Office), 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 sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the South Carolina Department of Corrections lists its inmates at doc.sc.gov/inmate-search-disclaimer.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Berkeley County
For Berkeley County the place to look is the custody page of the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail.
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 Berkeley 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 Berkeley County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Goose Creek, Hanahan, Moncks Corner, St. Stephen or Jamestown: 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 the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Berkeley County, the Berkeley County State Transport Police or Santee Cooper: the records office of the agency involved.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Berkeley County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the six cities in Berkeley County: Goose Creek, Hanahan, Moncks Corner, St. Stephen and Jamestown. Bonneau has 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 Berkeley County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Berkeley County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Goose Creek (50,352)
- Hanahan (21,983)
- Moncks Corner (18,359)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Berkeley County each year?
The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office reported 2,197 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 4,289 between them.
Where are people arrested in Berkeley County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Berkeley 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 Berkeley County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Berkeley 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.
Is this the official Berkeley 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.