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South CarolinaPlaces

Laurens

City in Laurens County, 9,336 people.

Police

Sheriff in its county: Laurens 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

People
9,336
Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024

How a case moves here

Laurens 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 Laurens Police Department, Laurens's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.

The crime index

Crime index offenses reported by Laurens Police Department, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kSouth Carolina
Violent crime7058688780789460
Murder1Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.8.9
Rape3555106139
Robbery526475238
Aggravated assault6151577863674373
Property crime3322872832912853,2142,130
Burglary4132333835389319
Larceny2682402282312312,6051,578
Motor vehicle theft2315222219220234
Arson22Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.12

Outside the crime index

Offenses outside the crime index reported by Laurens Police Department, 2021 to 2025
Offense20212022202320242025Per 100kSouth Carolina
All offenses outside the crime index5684369056326046,8383,684
Simple assault and intimidation1741312161742021,9501,319
Vandalism2444796468607606
Fraud6151647466687437
Drug abuse violations2461484252341982,720892
Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc.2327644326398176
Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing12918171415269
Forgery and counterfeiting787287072
Embezzlement1355426315
Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution)1612646334
Prostitution and commercialized vice41Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.2.4
Gambling21Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.1
Other Group A offenses5711131511160
Human trafficking (not in the total)113Too few for a rate: the count is under 20.0.7

Offenses Laurens 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.