SearchSystems Editorial

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. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 24, 2026 and September 28, 2026.

About this guide

Laurens County, South Carolina, has about 71,000 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 Laurens 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, sex offender registry, records requests and common questions.

Related guides: Laurens County public records, Laurens County arrest records, Laurens County warrants, Laurens County inmate search, Laurens County court records, South Carolina arrest records and South Carolina inmate search.

Criminal Cases in the Laurens County Circuit Court

A criminal case from Laurens County is filed in the Laurens County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases and civil cases up to $7,500, and the court file, kept by the Clerk of Court, is the record of it that the public may see.

For Laurens County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at sccourts.org/courts/courthouse-search/laurens (page title: Laurens | South Carolina Judicial Branch), phone (864) 984-3538, 100 Hillcrest Square Suite B Laurens, SC 29360, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.

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 Laurens County

The Laurens County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Laurens and Clinton keep the arrest records in Laurens 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 five state agencies, one campus police department and one state police unit in Laurens County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.

The Fountain Inn Police Department is listed by the FBI across two counties including Laurens County, so its arrests are not broken out for Laurens County here.

Together, the three agencies in Laurens County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,192 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 Laurens County arrest records.

The Crimes Behind the Records: Laurens County in 2025

The three agencies in Laurens County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 262 violent and 1,168 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,430 crimes in 2025 against 1,647 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 Laurens County public records guide.

The Sex Offender Registry for Laurens County

Registered sex offenders living in Laurens 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 Laurens 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. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at laurenscountysc.gov/page_builder/public_records_request.index.php (page title: Public Records Request | FOIA Request Form).

Frequently Asked Questions

Are criminal records public in Laurens 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.

Can I search Laurens County criminal cases online?

The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sccourts.org/courts/courthouse-search/laurens (page title: Laurens | South Carolina Judicial Branch).

How do I get my own South Carolina criminal history?

Through the same CATCH search, run on yourself.

Is this the official Laurens 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.