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 on September 24, 2026.
Sumter County, South Carolina, has about 105,000 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 Sumter 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, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests and common questions.
Related guides: Sumter County public records, Sumter County arrest records, Sumter County warrants, Sumter County inmate search, Sumter County court records, South Carolina arrest records and South Carolina inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Sumter County Circuit Court
A criminal case from Sumter County is filed in the Sumter 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 Sumter County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at sumtercountysc.gov/departments/a_-_d/clerk_of_court/index.php (page title: Welcome to Sumter County, SC), phone 803-436-2227, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., 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 Sumter County
The Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for Sumter keep the arrest records in Sumter 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 and one state police unit in Sumter County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the two agencies in Sumter County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 1,375 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 Sumter County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Sumter County in 2025
The two agencies in Sumter County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 680 violent and 2,287 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,967 crimes in 2025 against 3,671 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 Sumter County public records guide.
The Solicitor for Sumter County
Charges in Sumter County are filed by the Solicitor, which reviews the arrests of every agency in the county and brings the cases in the Sumter County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at sumtercountysc.gov/departments/s_-_z/solicitor_s_office/index.php (page title: Welcome to Sumter County, SC), phone 803-436-2185, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Sumter County
Registered sex offenders living in Sumter 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 Sumter 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal 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.
Can I search Sumter County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sumtercountysc.gov (page title: Welcome to Sumter County, SC).
How do I get my own South Carolina criminal history?
Through the same CATCH search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Sumter County?
The Solicitor, reached at 803-436-2185, which files its cases in the Sumter County Circuit Court or the Magistrate Court.
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.