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.
Orangeburg County, South Carolina, has about 83,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office, ten city agencies and eight 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 Orangeburg 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: Orangeburg County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Orangeburg County
The Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Orangeburg County. It reported 1,463 arrests for 2024, its latest complete year.
Arrests inside ten 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:
- Orangeburg, 13,378 residents: 825 arrests reported for 2025.
- Holly Hill, 1,259 residents: 48 arrests reported for 2025.
- Branchville, 969 residents: 6 arrests reported for 2023.
- Santee, 814 residents: 43 arrests reported for 2025.
- Bowman, 767 residents: 1 arrests reported for 2025.
- North, 677 residents: 76 arrests reported for 2025.
- Elloree, 548 residents: 46 arrests reported for 2025.
- Springfield, 437 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2022.
- Norway, 276 residents: 4 arrests reported for 2020.
- Eutawville, 241 residents: 9 arrests reported for 2024.
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 Orangeburg County: Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and South Carolina State University (campus police); the Orangeburg County State Transport Police, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Orangeburg County, Orangeburg County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Orangeburg County Forestry Commission and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Orangeburg County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Orangeburg 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.
- Orangeburg: 825 for 2025, 726 for 2024, 700 for 2023, 516 for 2022, 489 for 2021 and 489 for 2020.
- North: 76 for 2025, 49 for 2024, 31 for 2023, 26 for 2022, 56 for 2020 and 79 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Holly Hill: 48 for 2025, 57 for 2024, 39 for 2023, 54 for 2022, 35 for 2021 and 22 for 2020.
- Elloree: 46 for 2025, 29 for 2024, 24 for 2023, 47 for 2022, 48 for 2021 and 29 for 2020.
- Santee: 43 for 2025, 140 for 2024, 78 for 2023, 11 for 2022 and 33 for 2021.
- Bowman: 1 for 2025, 2 for 2024, 3 for 2023, 1 for 2022, 2 for 2020 and 4 for 2019; 2021 is missing months.
- Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office: 1,463 for 2024, 864 for 2022, 758 for 2021, 692 for 2020 and 1,002 for 2019; 2023 is missing months.
- Eutawville: 9 for 2024, 31 for 2023, 56 for 2022, 8 for 2021 and 4 for 2019; 2020 is missing months.
- Branchville: 6 for 2023, 9 for 2022, 5 for 2021, 9 for 2020 and 0 for 2019.
- Norway: 4 for 2020.
- Springfield: 2 for 2022 and 5 for 2021.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,039 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,039 in 2025 against 1,003 in 2024, up 3.6 percent.
Through July 2026, the six agencies with every month so far on file reported 683 arrests, against 549 in the same months of 2025.
Springfield, Eutawville, Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office and Branchville reported only part of 2025 (5 months, 7 months, 11 months and 10 months) and are left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Orangeburg County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Orangeburg 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 280 people, up from about 260 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 214 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 jail page of the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office at orangeburgcounty.org/469/Sheriffs-Office (page title: Sheriff's Office | Orangeburg County, SC), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 429), so open it in a browser.
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 Orangeburg County
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 Orangeburg 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 Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Orangeburg, Holly Hill, Branchville, Santee, Bowman, North or another of the cities listed above: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, the Orangeburg County State Transport Police or the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Orangeburg County: the records office of the agency involved.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Orangeburg County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for ten of the 17 cities in Orangeburg County: Orangeburg, Holly Hill, Branchville, Santee, Bowman, North, Elloree, Springfield, Norway and Eutawville. Neeses, Rowesville, Woodford, Cordova, Livingston, Vance and Cope 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 Orangeburg County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Orangeburg County each year?
Orangeburg reported 825 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,039 between them.
Where are people arrested in Orangeburg County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Orangeburg 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 Orangeburg County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Orangeburg 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 Orangeburg 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.