Kings County, California Criminal Records

A background check is the process a company or private citizen goes through when deciding to use available public records to determine the character of another individual. A private background check might occur if a concerned neighbor is worried about the criminal history of a person in the neighborhood. In most cases, however, background checks are performed on individuals applying for jobs and positions that require great trust and a spotless history without transgressions. A background check is especially critical for a person applying for work around vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly. Background checks in general can help a company or other organization weed out sex offenders and applicants with prior felony convictions. Background checks can be done one record at a time, or outsourced to a company that specializes in background checks over the Internet.

Court Records

Court records are an essential and necessary part of any background check. For citizens of Kings County, California, you will need to get in touch with the Kings County Superior Court to obtain court records. The court system has four distinct branches, all of which handle criminal matters:

Avenal Downtown Courthouse
501 East Kings Street, Avenal CA 93204

Telephone: 559-582-1010 ext 4095

Corcoran Downtown Courthouse

1000 Chittenden Avenue, Corcoran CA 93212

Telephone: 559-992-5193

Hanford Courthouse

1426 South Drive, Hanford CA 93230

Telephone: 559-582-1010

Lemoore Downtown Courthouse

449 C Street, Lemoore CA 93245

Telephone: 559-924-7757

Each courthouse maintains normal business hours of 8:00am – 5:00pm. The Kings County Superior Court system also has a full-service website, complete with information about court and case records, located at this link: http://www.kings.courts.ca.gov/courtmain.asp.

Public Records

Criminal records are public records and make up a significant portion of any complete background check. In Kings County, you can contact the Kings County Sheriff’s Department for access to their local criminal records. You can find the sheriff’s located at 1444 W. Lacey Blvd, Hanford, California 93230. The contact telephone number is 559-584-1431 ext 2790. The sheriff’s office also has a full-service website for web users, complete with links to sex offender search tools, located at this link: http://www.countyofkings.com/sheriff/index.html.

Online Resources

To check the database maintained by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in order to ascertain if an individual has ever been under their jurisdiction, you can utilize their online offender catalogue. To begin searching, go the following website: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

For residents of California who wish to do their own background check to see what results are returned, the California Department of Justice has setup an online service for that purpose. This service entails a processing fee of $25.00, and can be implemented by following the procedure laid out at the following website: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php.

For an official background check on the behalf of a company or other organization that requires them, you can also request an official fingerprint-based background check from the California DOJ. Go to the following website, http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/, and follow the instructions.

Megan’s Law is the name of the California state sex offender registry. To look up potential registered offenders, click this link: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.