View Free Darlington County Arrest Records & Criminal Information

Look up free Darlington County arrest records via several different avenues today. There are many resources available at the state, county, and even municipal levels that can give various details to curious citizens at no cost.

Whether you want to conduct background checks, are looking to protect your neighborhood, or just want to check these records out of curiosity, access to arrest records is essential.

This brief resource lists all the official custodians of arrest records and police reports, and describes how to utilize their services to find the desired information in Darlington County, South Carolina.

How To Search Recent Darlington County Arrest Records & Find Mugshots for Free

South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act, or Code of Laws Title 30, commands that all public business be conducted in an open and public manner so that civilians are able to see the activity and decisions reached by officers of the law. Most arrest records are covered by this statute (there are special cases where a record may be kept confidential).

Searchers have access to multiple official sources that maintain arrest records, providing various options for obtaining the desired information.

Darlington County Detention Center: The Darlington County Detention Center is a great resource for finding information on current inmates. Also referred to as the W. Glenn Campbell Detention Center, it maintains a List of All the Incarcerated Individuals that is available to the public for viewing.

There are also options to search for an individual by name, charge, or date booked using the Inmate Search Tool, also provided by the Darlington County Detention Center.¹ Folks can also use this search tool to look for inmates recently released from Darlington County Detention Center, going back about 3 months. Searchers have the option to filter the list by either name or charge.

The information available on each individual includes physical descriptors such as height, weight and eye color, a mug shot, and all charges related to his or her arrest.

The detention center is open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday, and can be found in-person at:

Glenn Campbell Detention Center
2349 Rogers Rd.
Darlington, SC 29532

The staff can be reached by phone (843-398-4220) or by email ([email protected]).

Darlington County Sheriff’s Office: Aside from the most current inmates, the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office keeps arrest records as well. However, there isn’t a way of searching records online.

Anyone interested in obtaining an arrest record will need to fill out a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request Form, which includes the name and birth date of the subject on the record, the date and location of the incident that resulted in the report being filed.

There’s a chance that the sought-after record may be available in electronic format, and if the individual requesting the record would like an email copy instead, he or she can provide an email address along with all the other information.

To send in the form via mail, use the following PO box:

Darlington County Sheriff’s Office
Attn: Public Information Officer
PO Box 783
Darlington, SC 29532

To drop off the FOIA form in person, head to the following street address:

Darlington County Sheriff’s Office
1621 Harry Byrd Highway
Darlington, SC 29532

The department has provided a records request fees PDF so anyone seeking a public record can calculate the final costs and include payment with the request submission. To access the form, look at the menu on the left hand side of the sheriff’s office website.

Click on the down arrow under the tab “Freedom of Information Request Form.” Currently, the associated fees are $20.00/per hour spent retrieving and scanning the document, and .20 cents per page.

The sheriff’s office can be reached by phone at 843-398-4501, or the after hours/non-emergency number 843-398-4920. More contact information is available on the sheriff’s office website.

Hartsville City Clerk: Hartsville is the most populous city in Darlington County, and has a similar process for receiving public records requests. The city has an online Freedom of Information Act Public Records Request that any curious individual can fill out. There is also a downloadable PDF that can be found on the online form.

Once the form is filled out, interested parties should include payment with the request. The rates are mentioned on the form, but are similar to the county’s: $20.00 per hour for staff, and .25 cents per page of the document/s.

If opting to not use the online request form, citizens can bring their filled-out PDF and payment to the Hartsville City Hall in person at:

Hartsville City Hall
100 East Carolina Avenue
Hartsville, SC 29551

Alternatively, the PDF can be emailed to [email protected], or mailed to the city clerk:

City of Hartsville
Attn: City Clerk
PO Drawer 2497
Hartsville, SC 29551

There are some exceptions for filling out the FOIA form; first, requests made by letter will be honored if they contain all the same information as required on the online form and PDF.

Additionally, if an individual requests to see a police report made in the last 14 days or documentation of an inmate held in a jail or detention center in the last 3 months, the requester does not need to fill out the form if he or she goes in-person to the city hall. The building is open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday.

Any document that is older than 2 years may take between 20 and 35 days to process, while more recent documents may only take 10 but up to 30 days to retrieve.

South Carolina Department of Corrections: Another place one can look to find arrest records and police reports is the South Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC). The website offers a Free Inmate Search Portal to locate prisoners throughout the state.²

If the inmate’s South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) number or his or her state identification (SID) number are known, citizens should use those to search, as they will yield the most accurate results.

Otherwise, the first and last name of the inmate can be used, and there is an option to turn on a “phonetic match” that will return results that sound similar to the name typed in. The DOC also has a toll-free inmate information number: 1-866-727-2846.

There are some third-party vendors, such as VINELink, that may be able to offer information on arrest records in Darlington County, or any of its cities, as well. The information received by such a company is not officially endorsed by any governing body in the county, and will not be honored as any sort of certified documentation.

Sometimes arrest records are archived in another area of government once they are no longer considered “recent” reports. The next section will detail any differences in the process for locating older criminal histories in the county.

How To Acquire Prior Arrest & Criminal Information in Darlington County SC

When seeking to uncover prior arrest records in Darlington County, South Carolina, there are several avenues for obtaining these records.

4th Circuit Court: The South Carolina Judicial Branch provides access to all case records through its website, including those at the county or municipal level.

Each circuit court in the state can be searched independently for records. Darlington County is part of the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, and therefore any arrest reports and other criminal information from the county will be accessed through that court’s Online Case Records Search for free.⁴

Anyone using this tool can search by case number and case type, the first, middle, and last name of either a plaintiff or defendant, or some type of date, such as the date of arrest or judgment issued. Not all these fields need to be filled out for a search to be conducted, but the more information provided the lower the number of yielded results.

Darlington County Sheriff’s Office: The Darlington County Sheriff’s Office will be able to process older criminal records, as well. Folks using this agency should once again fill out the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request available on their website.

The request can be made using the online form, or the PDF version can be turned in via email, mail, or in-person. Check the FOIA fees tab on the left hand side of the sheriff’s office homepage.

Hartsville City Clerk: For previous arrest records in the city of Hartsville, the process is the same as if searching for recent police reports; the first step is filling out a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) form either online or the PDF version. Because the arrest reports being searched for would be older than two weeks, and the inmate history older than 3 months, the FOIA form is mandatory for obtaining older records.

State Law Enforcement Division: South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) offers certified record requests for criminal histories of individuals in the state. To conduct one of these, citizens should use the agency’s online South Carolina Record Check Subject Search.⁵

There is a nonrefundable fee of $25.00 for this, plus a $1.00 fee for the online search. All terms and conditions for using the online record check are outlined on SLED’s website.

There’s also an option to print off and fill out a Criminal Record Check Form for one of SLED’s criminal history checks. The $25.00 fee will still apply, but the $1.00 online search fee will not. It can be mailed in with a business check, cashier’s check, or money order made out to SLED, along with a self-addressed and stamped envelope.

Send all contents to:

SLED Records Department
P.O. Box 21398
Columbia, South Carolina 29221-1398

The SLED team and building is located at:

SLED Headquarters
4400 Broad River Road
Columbia, SC 29210

They can be reached by phone at 803-737-9000. For any questions regarding the results of a criminal history check, contact the SLED Public Dissemination Unit at 803-896-1443. SLED headquarters is open 24/7.

If an individual’s reasons for obtaining any of the information discussed so far is due to posting bail for an inmate, the next section will outline the options available to citizens for paying a bond.

How To Pay Bail After an Arrest in Darlington County

There are two different ways to post bail in Darlington County. The first would be to pay cash. If using this option, the amount must be paid in full before the detention center can begin the process of releasing the inmate. The other option would be to pay a surety bond using a bail bondsman.

Using the Darlington County Detention Center’s Inmate Locator Tool, friends and family members of inmates can see how much bail is posted at, and the possible methods for paying (it might not always be an option to use a bail bondsman or to pay cash). If it is an option to pay cash, it can be paid at the detention center:

Glenn Campbell Detention Center
2349 Rogers Rd.
Darlington, SC 29532

If the bail amount is high, the family of the inmate could consider using a bail bondsman, or a bail agency. Typically, these people or agencies will charge around 10 – 15% of the total bail, and might have a minimum amount.

Folks will usually have to pay a bondsman in cash. If using a bail bondsman to post bail, the payment will be processed by the Darlington County Clerk of Court.⁶

Hartsville, South Carolina: Because the city of Hartsville uses the W. Glenn Campbell Detention Center for its arrestees, the process for posting bail is the same; if the option to pay in-person is available, head to the detention center and be prepared to pay the full amount in cash. If using a bail agency, an agent will direct individuals on how much to pay, and what forms of payment the agency accepts.

Whatever an individual’s reasons are for seeking information on past or present inmates, there are many options available throughout the state of South Carolina, as well as through counties and cities, on where to begin looking. There are many resources that are available at no cost to members of the public, and some that can be utilized using only the first and last name of the inmate.

Thanks to the state’s Freedom of Information Act, Darlington County arrest records — which are considered matters of public record — are kept readily available for viewing and copying.