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.
Lancaster County, South Carolina, has about 112,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, one city agency 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 Lancaster 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: Lancaster County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lancaster County
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lancaster County. It reported 2,212 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Lancaster County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Lancaster, 9,396 residents: 296 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 Lancaster County: Lancaster County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Lancaster County Forestry Commission, the Department of Natural Resources in Lancaster County, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Lancaster County and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Lancaster County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Lancaster 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.
- Lancaster County Sheriff's Office: 2,212 for 2025, 2,383 for 2024, 2,572 for 2023, 2,323 for 2022, 2,508 for 2021 and 2,472 for 2020.
- Lancaster: 296 for 2025 and 337 for 2024.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,508 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,508 in 2025 against 2,720 in 2024, down 7.8 percent.
Through June 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,202 arrests, against 1,289 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lancaster County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Lancaster 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 200 people, up from about 140 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 121 beds, and it ran at 164 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office at lacoso.net/detention (page title: Detention | lancaster-sheriff), phone 803-283-2084, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
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 Lancaster County
For Lancaster County the place to look is the Solicitor, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at sccourts.org/courts/court-officials/solicitors).
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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 803-283-2084.
- An arrest in Lancaster: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by Lancaster County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Lancaster County Forestry Commission or the Department of Natural Resources in Lancaster County: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Solicitor handles discovery for pending cases.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Lancaster County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the four cities in Lancaster County: Lancaster. Kershaw, Van Wyck and Heath Springs 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 Lancaster County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lancaster County each year?
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office reported 2,212 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,508 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Lancaster County?
Ask the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office at 803-283-2084; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at lacoso.net/detention.
Where are people arrested in Lancaster County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lancaster 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 Lancaster County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lancaster 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 Lancaster 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.