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.
Sumter County, South Carolina, has about 105,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Sumter 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 Sumter 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: Sumter County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Sumter County
The Sumter County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Sumter County. It reported 676 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists one city in Sumter County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Sumter, 42,958 residents: 699 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 Sumter County: the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Sumter County, Sumter County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Sumter County Forestry Commission, the Department of Natural Resources in Sumter County and one more (state agency); the Highway Patrol in Sumter County (state police).
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Sumter 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.
- Sumter: 699 for 2025, 754 for 2024, 927 for 2023, 883 for 2022, 968 for 2021 and 995 for 2020.
- Sumter County Sheriff's Office: 676 for 2025, 622 for 2024, 616 for 2023, 645 for 2022, 1,013 for 2021 and 1,214 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,375 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,375 in 2025 against 1,376 in 2024, down 0.1 percent.
Through June 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 686 arrests, against 707 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Sumter County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Sumter County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2023 the jail held about 280 people, up from about 190 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 305 beds, and it ran at 91 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 Sumter County Sheriff's Office at sumtercountysc.gov/departments/a_-_d/detention_center/index.php (page title: Welcome to Sumter County, SC), phone 803-436-2340, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
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 Sumter County
Whether someone was arrested in Sumter County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Sumter County Circuit Court, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at sumtercountysc.gov/departments/a_-_d/clerk_of_court/index.php, phone 803-436-2227); the Solicitor, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at sumtercountysc.gov/departments/s_-_z/solicitor_s_office/index.php, phone 803-436-2185).
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 Sumter 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 Sumter County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at 803-436-2340.
- An arrest in Sumter: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- An arrest by the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Sumter County, Sumter County South Carolina Law Enforcement Division or the Sumter County Forestry Commission: the records office of the agency involved.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Solicitor, 803-436-2185, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Sumter County Circuit Court, through the court records page at sumtercountysc.gov, phone 803-436-2227.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Sumter County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the three cities in Sumter County: Sumter. Mayesville and Pinewood 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 Sumter County Circuit Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Sumter County each year?
Sumter reported 699 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 1,375 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Sumter County?
Ask the Sumter County Sheriff's Office at 803-436-2340; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at sumtercountysc.gov.
Where are people arrested in Sumter County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Sumter County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Sumter 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 Sumter County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Sumter 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 Sumter 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.