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 October 4, 2026.
Pickens County, South Carolina, has about 138,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, five city agencies and seven 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 Pickens 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: Pickens County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Pickens County
The Pickens County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Pickens County. It reported 1,103 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside five 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:
- Easley, 27,001 residents: 988 arrests reported for 2025.
- Clemson, 18,610 residents: 876 arrests reported for 2024.
- Central, 5,339 residents: 55 arrests reported for 2025.
- Liberty, 3,352 residents: 207 arrests reported for 2025.
- Pickens, 3,188 residents: 302 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 Pickens County: the Pickens County State Transport Police, the Department of Natural Resources in Pickens County, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Pickens County, Pickens County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Pickens County (state police); Clemson University (campus police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Pickens 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.
- Pickens County Sheriff's Office: 1,103 for 2025, 874 for 2024, 933 for 2023, 1,070 for 2022, 1,006 for 2021 and 1,175 for 2020.
- Easley: 988 for 2025, 1,103 for 2024, 1,094 for 2022, 991 for 2021, 1,223 for 2020 and 1,243 for 2019; 2023 is missing months.
- Pickens: 302 for 2025, 517 for 2024, 804 for 2023, 554 for 2021, 339 for 2020 and 381 for 2019; 2022 is missing months.
- Liberty: 207 for 2025, 178 for 2021 and 230 for 2019; 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are missing months.
- Central: 55 for 2025, 80 for 2024, 77 for 2023, 84 for 2022, 122 for 2021 and 97 for 2020.
- Clemson: 876 for 2024, 718 for 2023, 1,151 for 2022, 1,067 for 2021, 835 for 2020 and 756 for 2019.
Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,655 arrests that year. The three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,146 in 2025 against 2,057 in 2024, up 4.3 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,468 arrests, against 1,538 in the same months of 2025.
Clemson reported only part of 2025 (11 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Pickens County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Pickens 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 310 people, up from about 250 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2022, the last year with a capacity figure, was 363 beds, and it ran at 97 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 Pickens County Sheriff's Office at pickenscosheriff.org (page title: Pickens County SC Sheriff's Office, Jail & Inmate Information), phone 864-898-2940, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Pickens County
Whether someone was arrested in Pickens County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Pickens County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Pickens County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at co.pickens.sc.us/news_detail_T8_R51.php).
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 Pickens 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 Pickens County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 864-898-2940.
- An arrest in Easley, Clemson, Central, Liberty or Pickens: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by the Pickens County State Transport Police, the Department of Natural Resources in Pickens County or the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Pickens County: the records office of the agency involved.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Pickens County Circuit Court, through the court records page at co.pickens.sc.us/news_detail_T8_R51.php.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at co.pickens.sc.us (page title: Records Requests).
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Pickens County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the seven cities in Pickens County: Easley, Clemson, Central, Liberty and Pickens. Six Mile and Norris 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 Pickens County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Pickens County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Pickens County each year?
The Pickens County Sheriff's Office reported 1,103 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,655 between them.
Where are people arrested in Pickens County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Pickens County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Pickens 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 Pickens County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Pickens 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 co.pickens.sc.us.
Is this the official Pickens 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.