Pender County law enforcement

Pender County at a glance

Pender County stretches from inland communities and river corridors to the Topsail Island coast. Burgaw is the county seat and the location of both county and municipal law-enforcement offices. Surf City and Topsail Beach have separate police departments, while the sheriff’s responsibilities extend across the county. This directory keeps those organizations distinct and records the physical location of each police office rather than copying the general-government address from a website footer.

The county’s official history describes the Northeast Cape Fear River, Black River Preserve, Holly Shelter Game Land, agricultural communities, and growth around Hampstead and Surf City. Coastal visitor activity and inland travel produce different service settings. Surf City extends into Onslow County, and its current police station uses a Hampstead physical address. Moores Creek National Battlefield near Currie is a federal historic site; a federal land-management presence is not another municipal police department.

Law enforcement in Pender County

The county’s current overview identifies four local law-enforcement organizations: the sheriff and police departments in Burgaw, Surf City, and Topsail Beach. The sheriff’s divisions include patrol, investigation, civil services, detention, animal control, school resource officers, and 911 communications. The communications center serves multiple police and emergency-response agencies. A historical SBI directory also contains Atkinson Police; current county and town sources did not verify an active independent department, so that entry remains an unresolved historical record rather than an active profile.

County history and community context

Pender County was formed in 1875 from northern New Hanover County. Burgaw developed around the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad and became the county seat. The county’s historical account connects farming, timber, and naval stores to those transportation routes. It also describes the Canetuck Rosenwald School, built through local Black community fundraising and outside support in 1922, and the Penderlea homestead project established in 1934. These places show how education, agriculture, and public programs shaped communities beyond the coastal resorts. Hurricane Florence’s 2018 flooding is part of the county’s more recent history.

Courts, public records and official resources

The sheriff’s service portal includes a public-record request route, extra-patrol requests, citizen feedback, crime mapping, and detention services. Municipal police maintain separate department contacts and service pages. Burgaw links a crash-report search, and Surf City publishes annual reports and records information. County board, planning, and Register of Deeds records are available through county departments. Verify which agency created a document and whether the inquiry concerns a police report, a county administrative record, or a court file before choosing the destination.

The Judicial Branch’s Pender County page distinguishes the county courthouse and the Frances Dawson Basden Judicial Annex. It provides the contact directory, local schedules, jury instructions, local rules and forms, and court-payment resources. The page also links court-record and filing services. Confirm the specified building and calendar before a visit; a sheriff’s office or police station is not the default filing location for court documents.

Pender County court directory →

FBI and SBI regional offices

FBI office coverage

Wilmington covers Pender 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: 625. 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 Pender 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.

• Atkinson Police Department: Listed in the historical SBI directory and traffic roster. The current town site does not list a police department; the current county snapshot lists the sheriff, Burgaw, Surf City, and Topsail Beach. Absence from those pages is not proof of a dissolution date. SBI historical directory · Pender County agency overview · Atkinson current town website
• Moores Creek National Battlefield: The county identifies the National Park Service historic site near Currie. It is federal property and should be linked to the statewide federal-agency discussion rather than counted as a local town police department. Pender County official history

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.

• North Carolina government — county directory
• North Carolina Judicial Branch — county court services
• Pender County — current public-safety overview
• Pender County — history
• Pender Sheriff — service portal
• Pender Sheriff — communications
• Town of Atkinson — current government website
• SBI — historical Atkinson directory entry
• Surf City — police department