Brunswick County law enforcement

Brunswick County at a glance

Brunswick County has one of the more varied local enforcement landscapes in this part of North Carolina: a county sheriff, inland town departments, coastal and island police, a combined public-safety department on Bald Head Island, and college police. Bolivia is the county seat. This directory distinguishes agency headquarters from Town Hall addresses and separates a general-information telephone from the route used to request an officer.

Brunswick lies in southeastern North Carolina along the Atlantic coast and the Cape Fear River. The Intracoastal Waterway and beaches at Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle Beach, Holden Beach, Oak Island, and Bald Head Island are major geographic features. The county’s official municipal directory should be used to distinguish the separate towns, cities, and villages.

Law enforcement in Brunswick County

The sheriff’s contact directory separates its main office, substations, records, public information, detention, and internal-affairs contacts. Bald Head Island combines police, fire response, and emergency medical responsibilities in its public-safety organization; its officers use quick-response vehicles equipped for multiple emergencies. Other municipalities maintain conventional police departments, while Sunset Beach describes patrol, detective, animal-control, and code-enforcement services. Brunswick Community College has published a sworn campus-police structure; its current security report should be checked for details of campus agreements. Sandy Creek is treated as a roster-reconciliation question, not assumed to have an active department. Brunswick Community College expressly identifies its on-campus officers as Brunswick County Sheriff deputies assigned through the school-resource program. Its former college-police roster name is therefore treated as a sheriff service location, not another current independent agency.

County history and community context

The county was formed in 1764 from New Hanover and Bladen. Historic sites include Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, Fort Johnston in Southport, and Bald Head Island’s lighthouse. These places connect colonial government, coastal defense, maritime commerce, and the Civil War. Bolivia is the present county seat; some older narratives contain inconsistent wording about the move, so the current official government directory controls that identification.

Courts, public records and official resources

The Brunswick County government website is the starting point for county department contacts, board materials, property information, and the Register of Deeds. The sheriff and any municipal or campus police department maintain their own operational records; identify the agency that created a report before directing an inquiry. For older county material, the State Archives County Records Guide separates court, land, estate, tax, and other record series. Its finding aids describe archival holdings rather than promising that a particular file is available online.

The North Carolina Judicial Branch maintains a dedicated Brunswick County page with courthouse information, a contact directory, jury-service guidance, local rules and forms, and payment information. It also links the statewide eCourts services. Use the county contact directory to identify the Clerk of Superior Court or another court office; a police station is not the filing office for a court case. Court schedules and building instructions should be checked on the Judicial Branch site before a visit.

Brunswick County court directory →

FBI and SBI regional offices

FBI office coverage

Wilmington covers Brunswick County under the Charlotte Field Office. The FBI investigates federal matters; this assignment does not replace local emergency response.

Charlotte Field Office: 704-672-6100 · 7915 Microsoft Way, Charlotte, NC 28273. Official FBI coverage directory.

NC SBI district

Coastal District — Jacksonville · 470 Dolphin Drive, Jacksonville, N.C. 28546 · (910) 939-6200. Official SBI district-office directory.

For an emergency call 911. The federal and state office contacts are provided for jurisdictional research and administrative inquiries.

Published crime and personnel data

The NC SBI’s county table reports selected Index offenses from contributing agencies in 2024. It is separate from the FBI’s 2025 reporting year and is not a count of all possible offenses.

Published county-table Index total: 2,171. SBI Index offenses by agency in county.

A county total depends on the reporting agencies and source-table coverage. Missing agencies or blank values must not be treated as zero. Published totals are not a safety ranking and do not establish an agency’s performance.

These are individual agency rows, not whole-county totals. Cross-county departments may serve territory beyond Brunswick County. Each linked profile identifies its FBI source table and reporting label. Do not sum these rows to compare with the SBI’s different year and coverage.

Explore statewide FBI figures, reporting definitions and methodology →

Service arrangements and roster notes

Historical reporting lists can include former departments, contract arrangements, facilities and subordinate units. The notes below distinguish those entries from the agency profiles above.

• Brunswick Comm. College: The current college safety page identifies sheriff deputies/SROs providing campus policing. Historical SBI roster — published December 1, 2025 · Reconciliation evidence
• Sandy Creek Police Department: Historical SBI listing found; current town page describes municipal government and welfare checks without verifying a sworn police department. Historical SBI roster — published December 1, 2025 · Reconciliation evidence
• Brunswick Comm. College: The current college safety page identifies sheriff deputies/SROs providing campus policing. Historical SBI roster — published December 1, 2025 · Reconciliation evidence

Sources and review date

Official agency, government and institutional sources are linked below. Contact details and organizational information were reviewed September 24, 2026. Published statistical years are identified separately.

• NC government county directory — county seat and formation
• Brunswick County government
• Library of North Carolina / NCpedia — county history
• NC Judicial Branch — Brunswick County
• NC State Archives — County Records Guide
• Brunswick Sheriff — contacts
• Brunswick municipal jurisdictions
• Bald Head Island Public Safety
• Sunset Beach Police
• Brunswick Community College — sheriff service