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 on September 24, 2026.
Dorchester County, South Carolina, has about 175,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Dorchester 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 Dorchester 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: Dorchester County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Dorchester County
The Dorchester County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Dorchester County. It reported 964 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Dorchester County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Summerville, 52,625 residents: 1,569 arrests reported for 2025.
- St. George, 1,855 residents: 114 arrests reported for 2025.
- Ridgeville, 1,234 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2022.
- Harleyville, 740 residents.
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 North Charleston Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Dorchester County, so its arrests are not broken out for Dorchester County here.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Dorchester County: Dorchester County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Dorchester County Forestry Commission, the Department of Natural Resources in Dorchester County, the Dorchester County State Transport Police and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Dorchester County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Dorchester 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.
- Summerville: 1,569 for 2025, 1,754 for 2024, 2,264 for 2023, 1,731 for 2022, 1,385 for 2020 and 1,691 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Dorchester County Sheriff's Office: 964 for 2025, 1,065 for 2024, 1,051 for 2023, 916 for 2021, 1,008 for 2020 and 1,322 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- St. George: 114 for 2025, 79 for 2024, 50 for 2022 and 72 for 2021; 2023 is missing months.
- Ridgeville: 0 for 2022 and 0 for 2021.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,647 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,647 in 2025 against 2,898 in 2024, down 8.7 percent.
Through March 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 653 arrests, against 730 in the same months of 2025.
Harleyville and Ridgeville reported only part of 2025 (11 months and 7 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Dorchester County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Dorchester 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 250 people, down from about 260 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 264 beds, and it ran at 96 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 Dorchester County Sheriff's Office at dorchestercountysc.gov/government/public-safety/sheriff-s-office/de... (page title: Inmate Lookup | Dorchester County, SC website), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 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 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 Dorchester County
Whether someone was arrested in Dorchester County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Dorchester County Circuit Court, kept by the Clerk of Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the Solicitor, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at dorchestercountysc.gov/government/administrative-services/attorney, phone (843) 563-0097).
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at dorchestercountysc.gov/government/courts-judicial-services/magistra... (page title: Case Search | Dorchester County, SC website), belongs to a lower court, not to the Dorchester County Circuit Court.
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 Dorchester 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 Dorchester County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Summerville, St. George, Ridgeville or Harleyville: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by Dorchester County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Dorchester County Forestry Commission or the Department of Natural Resources in Dorchester County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Solicitor, (843) 563-0097, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Dorchester County Circuit Court it is kept by the Clerk of Court. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at dorchestercountysc.gov, is a lower court's.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at dorchestercountysc.gov (page title: Records Requests | Dorchester County, SC website).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Dorchester County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the five cities in Dorchester County: Summerville, St. George, Ridgeville and Harleyville. Reevesville 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 Dorchester County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Dorchester County each year?
Summerville reported 1,569 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,647 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Dorchester County?
Look on the custody page of the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office at dorchestercountysc.gov. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Dorchester County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Dorchester 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 Dorchester County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Dorchester 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 dorchestercountysc.gov.
Is this the official Dorchester 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.