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 4, 2026.
Calhoun County, South Carolina, has about 14,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office, two city agencies and six 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 Calhoun 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: Calhoun County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Calhoun County
The Calhoun County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Calhoun County. It reported 148 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year.
Arrests inside two of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- St. Matthews, 1,834 residents: 20 arrests reported for 2025.
- Cameron, 374 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2023.
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 Calhoun County: the Department of Natural Resources in Calhoun County, the Calhoun County Forestry Commission, Calhoun County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Calhoun County and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Calhoun County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Calhoun 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.
- Calhoun County Sheriff's Office: 148 for 2023, 254 for 2022, 279 for 2021, 246 for 2020 and 196 for 2019.
- St. Matthews: 20 for 2025, 22 for 2024, 18 for 2023, 20 for 2021 and 26 for 2019; 2020 and 2022 are missing months.
- Cameron: 0 for 2023, 0 for 2022, 0 for 2021 and 1 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2023 on file reported 166 arrests that year. The two of them with both 2023 and 2022 complete reported 148 in 2023 against 254 in 2022, down 42 percent.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Calhoun County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Calhoun County and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.
On an average day in 2023 the jail held about 47 people, up from about 42 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 36 beds, and it ran at 132 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 Calhoun County Sheriff's Office at calhounscsheriff.com (page title: Calhoun County SC Sheriff's Office, Jail & Inmate Information), phone 803-539-2091, 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 Calhoun County
Whether someone was arrested in Calhoun County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Calhoun County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at calhouncounty.sc.gov/clerk-court, phone (803) 874-3524).
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 Calhoun County
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. 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 Calhoun County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 803-539-2091.
- An arrest in St. Matthews or Cameron: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Department of Natural Resources in Calhoun County, the Highway Patrol in Calhoun County or the Calhoun County Forestry Commission: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Calhoun County Circuit Court, through the court records page at calhouncounty.sc.gov/clerk-court, phone (803) 874-3524.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Calhoun County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the two cities in Calhoun County: St. Matthews and Cameron.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Calhoun County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Calhoun County each year?
The Calhoun County Sheriff's Office reported 148 arrests to the FBI for 2023, and the three agencies with every month of 2023 on file reported 166 between them.
Where are people arrested in Calhoun County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Calhoun 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 Calhoun County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Calhoun 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 Calhoun 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.