Charleston
City in Charleston County, Berkeley County, 154,338 people.
Police
Sheriffs and county police in its counties: Berkeley County Sheriff's Office, Charleston County Sheriff's Office.
A department is the place's own when its name is the place's and its FBI population fits the place's people (decision city-or-town-is-its-police-department). Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29.
Where it sits
- Counties
- Charleston CountyBerkeley County
- People
- 154,338
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
How a case moves here
Charleston follows South Carolina law on arrests, release, and courts; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.
- Who decides release first
A magistrate, or a municipal judge for city charges, sets bond at a hearing within 24 hours of arrest. Magistrates need not be lawyers. A magistrate can't set bail on a charge punishable by death or life in prison; a circuit judge does.
S.C. Code 22-5-510S.C. Code 17-15-10 and following- Time to see a judge
A person charged with a bailable offense must have a bond hearing within 24 hours of arrest, and the jail must release the person within four hours after the bond is delivered.
S.C. Code 22-5-510(B)- Money bail
Magistrates and judges may set cash or surety bonds. A person charged with a new violent offense while out on bond for one loses the first bond, and any new bond must be paid in full cash.
S.C. Code 17-15-10, 17-15-15, 17-15-55
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Magistrates are called summary court judges, so setter_is_judge is "yes" though they need not be lawyers. Whether municipal or magistrate courts use a bail schedule for minor offenses was not found. How many counties have moved the jail from the sheriff to the county government was not counted.
Crime
Offenses reported by Charleston Police Department, Charleston's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.
The crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 642 | 572 | 635 | 573 | 453 | 376 | 460 |
| Murder | 17 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 6.7 | 8.9 |
| Rape | 76 | 53 | 48 | 45 | 32 | 33 | 39 |
| Robbery | 89 | 73 | 83 | 68 | 63 | 49 | 38 |
| Aggravated assault | 460 | 438 | 495 | 453 | 348 | 287 | 373 |
| Property crime | 3,242 | 2,924 | 3,100 | 3,227 | 2,600 | 1,972 | 2,130 |
| Burglary | 273 | 243 | 269 | 227 | 186 | 156 | 319 |
| Larceny | 2,498 | 2,191 | 2,380 | 2,655 | 2,187 | 1,556 | 1,578 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 471 | 490 | 451 | 345 | 227 | 259 | 234 |
| Arson | 19 | 8 | 17 | 16 | 10 | 9.1 | 12 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 5,288 | 5,658 | 6,126 | 5,984 | 6,503 | 3,861 | 3,684 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 1,394 | 1,383 | 1,693 | 1,735 | 1,732 | 1,037 | 1,319 |
| Vandalism | 918 | 746 | 786 | 706 | 628 | 494 | 606 |
| Fraud | 593 | 603 | 654 | 635 | 645 | 409 | 437 |
| Drug abuse violations | 1,630 | 2,108 | 2,187 | 2,213 | 2,799 | 1,429 | 892 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 361 | 411 | 405 | 255 | 204 | 214 | 176 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 90 | 86 | 78 | 78 | 83 | 54 | 69 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 115 | 149 | 121 | 141 | 193 | 94 | 72 |
| Embezzlement | 49 | 68 | 59 | 54 | 51 | 37 | 15 |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 58 | 32 | 48 | 55 | 59 | 33 | 34 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 2.9 | 2.4 |
| Gambling | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1 | |
| Other Group A offenses | 78 | 68 | 90 | 104 | 101 | 58 | 60 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.5 | |
| Human trafficking (not in the total) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.7 |
Offenses Charleston Police Department reported to the FBI in incident detail (NIBRS), each year, the second table by the arrest class each offense falls in. Per 100k: offenses per 100,000 people the department polices, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside South Carolina's rate over the same years. – means too few for a rate: the count is under 20.
Source: FBI NIBRS national master files, each agency's offenses and the FBI's population for it. South Carolina: the crime index: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, CrimeDB's chosen value per year (the state page's figures); outside it: FBI NIBRS, agencies that sent incident detail.