Colleton County
39,382 people, served by 9 police agencies that report to the FBI.
How a case moves here
Colleton County follows South Carolina law on arrests, release, and courts. These rules are the same in every county in the state; 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- Courts
The circuit court, sitting as the Court of General Sessions, tries felonies and the more serious misdemeanors. Magistrate courts in each county try crimes punished by up to 30 days in jail or a $500 fine, and municipal courts try similar crimes and ordinance violations inside city limits.
S.C. Code 22-3-540, 22-3-550S.C. Const. art. V, sec. 13- Judges and magistrates
The General Assembly elects circuit judges by a joint vote for six-year terms. The governor appoints magistrates, with the Senate's consent, for four-year terms. Magistrates appointed since 2005 need a four-year college degree and must pass a certification exam, but need not be lawyers.
S.C. Const. art. V, sec. 13S.C. Code 22-1-10
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.
What this county does differently
Nothing county-specific yet
Cities and towns
- Walterboro5,480
- Cottageville town1,196
- Edisto Beach town1,092
- Williams town100
- Lodge town98
- Smoaks town95
Every city, village, town, and township with any of its land in Colleton County, largest first. Population, the whole place's: Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024.
Police agencies
- Colleton County Sheriff's OfficeSheriff or county police32,159 served
- Walterboro Police DepartmentCity police department5,484 served
- Edisto Beach Police DepartmentCity police department1,068 served
- Cottageville Police DepartmentCity police department725 served
- Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control: Colleton CountyOther state agency
- Department of Natural Resources: Colleton CountyOther state agency
- Forestry Commission: Colleton CountyOther state agency
- Highway Patrol: Colleton CountyState police agency
- State Transport Police: Colleton CountyOther state agency
Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29. An agency that serves several counties appears on each. Population served is the FBI's figure.
Crime
The crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 265 | 252 | 280 | 219 | 276 | 671 | 460 |
| Murder | 16 | 11 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 27 | 8.9 |
| Rape | 15 | 5 | 21 | 9 | 11 | 32 | 39 |
| Robbery | 15 | 16 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 30 | 38 |
| Aggravated assault | 219 | 220 | 237 | 193 | 252 | 582 | 373 |
| Property crime | 1,128 | 1,120 | 999 | 794 | 730 | 2,477 | 2,130 |
| Burglary | 198 | 163 | 128 | 119 | 107 | 371 | 319 |
| Larceny | 803 | 833 | 744 | 574 | 518 | 1,803 | 1,578 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 127 | 124 | 127 | 101 | 105 | 303 | 234 |
| Arson | 10 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 18 | 12 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 1,987 | 1,912 | 1,941 | 1,767 | 1,651 | 4,807 | 3,684 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 813 | 819 | 791 | 742 | 748 | 2,032 | 1,319 |
| Vandalism | 308 | 228 | 274 | 259 | 253 | 686 | 606 |
| Fraud | 206 | 216 | 162 | 175 | 154 | 474 | 437 |
| Drug abuse violations | 424 | 402 | 471 | 421 | 319 | 1,058 | 892 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 94 | 104 | 135 | 66 | 52 | 234 | 176 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 37 | 26 | 30 | 32 | 50 | 91 | 69 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 50 | 74 | 38 | 26 | 36 | 116 | 72 |
| Embezzlement | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 15 | |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 25 | 19 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 39 | 34 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 2.4 | |||
| Gambling | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1 | ||||
| Other Group A offenses | 25 | 19 | 24 | 36 | 30 | 70 | 60 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.5 | ||||
| Human trafficking (not in the total) | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.7 |
Offenses agencies in Colleton County 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 reporting agencies police, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside South Carolina's rate over the same years. Agencies that reported part of a year are counted with their people, as the state's rates count them. – 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.