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.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, has about 264,000 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 Berkeley 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, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests and common questions.
Related guides: Berkeley County public records, Berkeley County arrest records, Berkeley County warrants, Berkeley County inmate search, Berkeley County court records, South Carolina arrest records and South Carolina inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Berkeley County Circuit Court
In South Carolina the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Berkeley County are heard by the Berkeley County Circuit Court, which hears felonies in the Court of General Sessions and civil cases over $7,500 in the Court of Common Pleas; the Magistrate Court takes misdemeanors, traffic cases and civil cases up to $7,500, and the file of each case is kept by the Clerk of Court.
For Berkeley County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at berkeleycountysc.gov/dept/coc (page title: Clerk of Court | Berkeley County Government), phone (843) 719-4050, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Berkeley County
The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Goose Creek, Hanahan, Moncks Corner, St. Stephen and Jamestown keep the arrest records in Berkeley 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 six state agencies and one state police unit in Berkeley County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
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.
Together, the five agencies in Berkeley County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 4,289 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 Berkeley County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Berkeley County in 2025
The five agencies in Berkeley County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 713 violent and 2,877 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 3,590 crimes in 2025 against 4,420 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 Berkeley County public records guide.
The Solicitor for Berkeley County
Charges in Berkeley County are filed by the Solicitor, which reviews the arrests of every agency in the county and brings the cases in the Berkeley County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at berkeleycountysc.gov/dept/solicitor (page title: Solicitors Office | Berkeley County Government), phone 888-346-5562, 212 Oakley Plantation Drive Moncks Corner, SC 29461, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
The Sex Offender Registry for Berkeley County
Registered sex offenders living in Berkeley 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 Berkeley 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal 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 my own South Carolina criminal history?
Through the same CATCH search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Berkeley County?
The Solicitor, reached at 888-346-5562, which files its cases in the Berkeley County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court.
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.