Riverside County, California Criminal Records

A background check is the thorough process undertaken when a company, business, or individual needs to find out background information about another person. Businesses will use a background check for the purpose of determining if an individual is suitable for employment, while a private citizen may want to know if someone they know has criminal records. There are different types of background checks, including employment history, driving record, criminal history, and in some cases, credit history. A human resources department might conduct a background check in a piecemeal manner, or they may outsource the entire process to an Internet-based company. In most cases, the most critical function a background check serves is to vet a potential job candidate, ensuring that the individual does not have a felony record. More importantly, a background check is used to guard against inadvertently hiring a registered sex offender.

Court Records

When putting together information from all the available sources of public records while doing a background check, you will need to gain access to county court records. In Riverside County, you will have to formally request case and court information from the Riverside County Superior Court. The Riverside court system has many different branches, five of which deal with criminal records and files:

Banning Court
135 North Alessandro Road, Banning CA 92220
Telephone 951-922-7140
Blythe Court
265 North Broadway, Blythe CA 92225

Telephone: 760-921-5900

Larson Justice Center

46-200 Oasis Street, Indio CA 92201

Telephone: 760-863-8426

Riverside Hall of Justice

4100 Main Street, Riverside CA 92501

Telephone: 951-955-4600

Southwest Justice Center

30755-D Auld Road, Murrieta CA 92563

Telephone: 951-304-5000

For handing official business at the courthouse, court is open to the public from Monday to Friday, from 7:30am - 4:00pm. The superior court also has a dedicated website for online users, and is located at this webpage: http://www.riverside.courts.ca.gov/jury/index.shtml.

Public Records

Criminal records also count as public records, and you will find most county sheriff’s have local criminal records in their archives. To get in touch with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, you can contact them in person, by telephone, or online. The sheriff’s office is located at 4095 Lemon Street, Riverside, California, 92501. To speak to someone over the telephone, call 951-955-2440. To look up local criminal information online, visit the sheriff’s webpage at the following link: http://www.riversidesheriff.org.

Online Resources

If your background check research requires you to eliminate from consideration county individuals who are on parole, then you will need to run their names through the California Department of Corrections online offender database. Click here to begin searching names: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

If you wish to perform a background checking using your personal information, the California Department of Justice has a webpage setup to guide web users through the process. Click the following link for additional information: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php. Note: A credit card payment of $25.00 is required.

You can also order your official fingerprint-based background check through the California DOJ if your company or organization requires you to obtain one. Click here for more details: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/.

To ensure that the target individual is not listed in the Megan’s Law sex offender registry, you can run their names through the online database at this link: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.