SLED Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) serves as the central state criminal justice information repository—collecting, processing, storing, and disseminating crime data and criminal identification and record information—assisting with crime prevention and the administration of criminal justice by providing accurate and timely information to local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies, civil governmental agencies, and the public as authorized by law and regulation.
Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)
Processed 154,246 criminal fingerprint cards in 2020, adding 300,340 arrest charges to criminal histories.
Performs fingerprint-based background checks for employment and licensing purposes, vetting 297,397 people in 2020 for positions of trust including teachers, nurses, police officers, and concealed weapon permit holders.
Collected 179,893 mugshots and 873,254 palm prints in 2020 that are now available to assist law enforcement agencies with investigations and identification.
Non-Criminal Justice Information Services (NCJIS)
Goal: To assist South Carolina criminal justice agencies (CJA) in vetting vendors and contractors with unescorted access to unencrypted criminal justice information (CJI) as well as assist and audit non-criminal justice agencies (NCJA) authorized to receive criminal history record information (CHRI).
Created in September of 2020, NCJIS combined what was the Agency Coordinator Unit and the NCJA auditing/training program.
The unit works with CJA Agency Coordinators (AC) and NCJA Authorized Recipients (AR) to ensure all access points to CJI are compliant with FBI CJIS Security Policy.
From the time of its establishment, the unit has facilitated 46 in-person fingerprint appointments and processed 422 hardcopy fingerprints, for a total of 468 requests processed for both NCJA and vendor personnel.
Computerized Criminal History (CCH)
Goal: To provide a complete criminal history for background checks by collecting and entering the court disposition of criminal cases, matching with the corresponding arrest information.
Manually modified and corrected over 34,691 records in 2020, ensuring that state and federal criminal background checks are accurate for the purposes of employment, licensing, and criminal justice purposes.
Reviewed and researched over 50,498 records for errors in criminal charges, dispositions, and discrepancies in identifiable information for citizens of South Carolina.
Manually added over 5,412 dispositions to the criminal records, making them available in background checks.
Sets gun flags on the state repository and the national system, flagging over 340 people in 2020 as prohibited by state and/or federal law from possessing a firearm.
Expungements
Goal: Process court-ordered expungements of arrest and disposition information to provide an accurate criminal history record.
Received and researched 10,825 orders from General Sessions and 46,336 orders from Summary courts in 2020.
Processed and added 322 pardons to the criminal history in 2020, removing any relevant gun flags from the record.
Pulled criminal histories for 95applications for DNA expungement in 2020, reviewing for pending charges or convictions that disqualify the application for sample expungement.
Expungement FAQ
SLED does not begin the expungement process nor has the authority to remove a charge without a Court Order for Destruction of Arrest Records. You will need to apply with the solicitor's office in the county where the arrest charge(s) took place.
If the charge was dismissed in a Magistrate or Municipal court, you will need to directly contact that court to receive an expungement.
Due to the volume of correspondence, we do not send out confirmation of expungement. Please allow SLED four weeks from receipt of the expungement order to remove the charge. After the allotted time, you may purchase a SLED criminal records check through the SLED website at https://catch.sled.sc.gov/ or through mail for confirmation.
Mail the certified true copy of the expungement order along with your recently purchased background check and a stamped, self-addressed return envelope to SLED Expungement Department P.O Box 21398 Columbia, SC 29221. We will expunge the charge and send an updated records check in the provided envelope, if the original records check was purchased within the last thirty days. You may also contact the court that issued the expungement order.
Request expedition with the Solicitor's office or court that is issuing the expungement.
SLED only holds records from the state criminal history repository. We do not have access to any third-party background checks or records. You will have to dispute any errors with the company that is providing that information.
Please contact us.
Public Dissemination
Goal: To provide name-based criminal history background checks to the public.
Reviewed, logged, and processed 47,774 record requests and 62,384 applications for concealed weapon permits and security guard and private investigator licenses received by mail in 2019, an average 444 requests and applications each workday.
Answered 18,176 phone calls in 2019, providing guidance and support to the public for the 553,045background checks conducted online through SLED CATCH by troubleshooting and processing refunds and special processing requests.
Sex Offender Registry (SOR)
Goal: To maintain the state sex offender registry and assist local agencies in properly registering offenders in their jurisdictions.
Maintains the SORT system with 10,793 actively registering sex offenders in 2019.
Trains and audits the 50 agencies that register and enter sex offenders into SORT.
Responds to phone calls and emails from concerned members of the public, out-of-state counterparts, and local agencies requesting guidance or assistance regarding compliance with state laws, FBI policies, and SORNA guidelines.
SOR Removal
On May 23, 2022, Governor Henry D. McMaster signed Act 221, former House Bill 4075, into law. This Act affords all sex offenders in South Carolina a mechanism to seek removal from South Carolina’s lifetime sex offender registry in response to the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in Powell v. Keel. This bill creates state tiers for offenders and provides reasonable avenues for removal based on the offender’s applicable state tier.
South Carolina Incident-Based reporting system (SCIBRS)
Goal: To collect detailed data on every criminal incident to provide publically available crime statistics for use by law enforcement administration, policymakers and legislators, academics, journalists, and the public at large.
Collected in-depth information on 318,981 criminal incidents and 145,697 arrests that took place in 2019.
Prepared and released 6 annual Crime in South Carolina publications in 3.5 years, becoming current with public releases of crime statistics throughout the state.
Averages an 84%complete participation rate among law enforcement agencies across the state—submitting a full 12 months of data for a year.
In January 2019, began official participation in the FBI’s National Use of Force Data Collection, with 50 participating agencies from city, county, and state law enforcement across the state.
South Carolina Information Exchange (SCIEx)
Goal: To provide an online repository of law enforcement records, including incident reports and case files, for sharing, searching, linking, and analyzing crime information across jurisdictional boundaries to aid in investigations.
Upgraded in September 2018 to improve searching capabilities for local law enforcement users.
Over 250 agencies have submitted almost 16.5 million records, assisting over 500 law enforcement users with intelligence and investigations.
Automatically replicates submitted records to the National Data Exchange (N-DEx)—a national repository of criminal justice records used by law enforcement agencies across the nation—which was recently approved as a secondary source for FBI NICS when determining whether an individual is eligible to purchase a firearm.
National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
Goal: To administer the use of and entry into the NCIC files, an electronic clearinghouse of crime data used by law enforcement to perform their duties, including apprehending fugitives, locating missing persons, and recovering stolen property.
Audited 205criminal justice agencies and 12 civil fingerprint agencies in 2019—including law enforcement agencies, detention centers, solicitor’s offices, and courts—ensuring timely, accurate, and complete entry and authorized use.
Manages the NCIC training curricula for the state by creating, maintaining, and updating lesson plans for 8 different classes and training users across the state: a total 171 class sessions for 1,150 personnel in 2019.
Responded to 10,638 phone calls and 23,597 emails from local agencies requesting assistance, processing 4,155 tickets in SLED’s internal technical request tracking system.
