Contra Costa County, California Criminal Records

Hiring companies, human resource departments, and even private citizens conduct background checks on other individuals for many legal, business, and personal reasons. A company or organization has to be sure that their potential hires are in good legal and moral standing before extending an offer of employment. Or, a private citizen may be curious or suspicious of a friend, co-worker, or neighbor and decide to conduct a background check on them. A standard background check may utilize many different public records, but most background checks will focus on an individual’s criminal history. Court records that contain criminal records or evidence of other improprieties may even be consulted as part of a background check. The two most common types of background checks performed by law enforcement agencies and commercial companies are fingerprint-based and name-based background checks. A thorough background check will also discover if an individual is a registered sex offender.

Court Records

Sometimes the process of doing a thorough background check will mean researching court records in the county the target individual lives in. When doing a background check, the main court divisions of interest, as far records, will be the criminal division(s). In Contra Costa County, there are four courthouses that hearing criminal cases and their contact information is listed as follows:

Superior Court of Contra Costa County
Martinez Branch

A.F. Bray Building

1020 Ward Street, Martinez CA 94553

Telephone: 925-646-2440

Pittsburg Branch

1000 Center Drive, Pittsburg CA 94565

Telephone: 925-427-8173

Richmond Branch

100 37th Street, Richmond CA 94805

Telephone: 510-374-3156

Walnut Creek Branch

640 Ygnacio Valley Road, Walnut Creek CA 94596

Telephone: 925-646-6572

Court hours for each branch is from 8:00am – 2:00pm Monday through Friday. If you want further details about the Contra Costas Superior Court system, go to the court’s website, located here: http://www.cc-courts.org/index.cfm?nodeid=3. Here you will find valuable additional information, including a link to easily look up case records and files.

Public Records

Often, you will find that the local sheriff can be a valuable resource when it comes to looking up an individual’s criminal record, for the purposes of a background check. If you need to get in touch with the Contra Cost Sheriff, the physical address is as follows: 651 Pine Street 7th Floor, Martinez, California 94553. The sheriff’s phone number is 925-335-1500, should you need to speak to someone directly. The sheriff’s office is open 24 hours. You can also visit the sheriff’s office online at the following webpage: http://www.co.contra-costa.ca.us/index.aspx?nid=60.

Online Resources

At some point during a background check you may need to check the offender database maintained by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation online. There is a free search tool available to the public online at the DOC website, located at this link: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

If you need to conduct a background check on yourself out of curiosity, or a concern about the accuracy of the information it contains, the State of California Department of Justice allows you to do so online at the following link: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php.

To check sex offenders at the Megan’s Law webpage of the California DOJ, click the following link: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.