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 September 28, 2026.
Chesterfield County, South Carolina, has about 44,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office, four 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 Chesterfield 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: Chesterfield County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Chesterfield County
The Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Chesterfield County. It reported 772 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Chesterfield County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Cheraw, 4,946 residents: 148 arrests reported for 2024.
- Pageland, 2,522 residents: 370 arrests reported for 2025.
- Chesterfield, 1,351 residents: 59 arrests reported for 2024.
- McBee, 812 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 FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Chesterfield County: the Highway Patrol in Chesterfield County (state police); the Department of Natural Resources in Chesterfield County, the Chesterfield County Forestry Commission, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control at Chesterfield, the Chesterfield County State Transport Police and one more (state agency).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Chesterfield 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.
- Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office: 772 for 2025, 591 for 2024, 1,007 for 2023, 1,017 for 2022 and 1,058 for 2021.
- Pageland: 370 for 2025, 410 for 2024, 271 for 2023 and 229 for 2022.
- McBee: 0 for 2025, 0 for 2024 and 0 for 2022; 2023 is missing months.
- Cheraw: 148 for 2024, 148 for 2022, 158 for 2021, 146 for 2020 and 232 for 2019; 2023 is missing months.
- Chesterfield: 59 for 2024, 63 for 2023, 88 for 2020 and 143 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,142 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,142 in 2025 against 1,001 in 2024, up 14 percent.
Cheraw and Chesterfield reported only part of 2025 (11 months and 11 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Chesterfield County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Chesterfield 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 2019 the jail held about 71 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 83 beds, and it ran at 86 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 Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office at chesterfieldsheriff.org/booking-records-requests.php (page title: Booking Records Requests | Chesterfield County SC Sheriff's Office), phone (843)623-3385, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 28, 2026.
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 Chesterfield County
For Chesterfield County the place to look is the custody page of the Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (843)623-3385.
- An arrest in Cheraw, Pageland, Chesterfield or McBee: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Highway Patrol in Chesterfield County, the Department of Natural Resources in Chesterfield County or the Chesterfield County Forestry Commission: the records office of the agency involved.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at chesterfieldsheriff.org (page title: Booking Records Requests | Chesterfield County SC Sheriff's Office).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Chesterfield County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the eight cities in Chesterfield County: Cheraw, Pageland, Chesterfield and McBee. Jefferson, Ruby, Patrick and Mount Croghan 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 Chesterfield County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Chesterfield County each year?
The Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office reported 772 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,142 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Chesterfield County?
Look on the custody page of the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office at chesterfieldsheriff.org, or call (843)623-3385. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Chesterfield County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Chesterfield 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 chesterfieldsheriff.org.
Is this the official Chesterfield 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.