San Francisco County, California Criminal Records

The parties most interested in an individual’s criminal records or overall background would be a hiring company in the process of offering a person employment, or a potential landlord. Hence, the human resources department or leasing office would commence an official background check. Some companies even require the job candidates to pay for their own background checks; these are usually social security number or fingerprint-base background checks. Sometimes a bank or mortgage company will look up a person’s public records, particularly their criminal history, which also can be investigated by the friends and family of the person in question. Once it is determined that the job candidate has a clean record, an offer of employment can be extended. Public records are universally accessible to anyone who requests them, which is why background checks are conducted all the time for whatever purpose they are required for.

Court Records

To ensure that you have done a thorough and comprehensive background check on a target individual, you will need to make use of court records, as these are very easily accessible, as far as public records are concerned. In San Francisco County, California, you will need to request any case records you need from the local superior court system. The criminal courthouse is located at this address: Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco, California 94102. In addition, the court’s contact telephone number is 415-551-3834. For those with Internet access, the San Francisco Superior Court has a county webpage with a comprehensive listing of important court information located at this link: http://www.sfsuperiorcourt.org/index.aspx.

Public Records

During your search of public records for background information of San Francisco County residents, you will need to request and review any criminal records on file with the county sheriff. The address of the San Francisco County Sheriff’s Office is 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl, Room 456, San Francisco, California 94102. The telephone number to the sheriff’s office is 415-554-7225, and the fax number is 415-554-7050. If you want to e-mail the sheriff, send your inquiry to the following address: sheriff@sfgov.org. If you have access to a computer, you have the option of visiting the sheriff’s webpage online by clicking this link: http://www.sfsheriff.com/home.htm.

Online Resources

If you need to check a particular individual’s background to ensure that they haven’t had recent dealings with the California Department of Corrections, such as being a parolee, you can check the DOC’s web-based offender search tool. Click the following hyperlink to be transported to the search webpage: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

California residents who need to see what results a California Department of Justice based background check would return have the option of submitting a request online. Click this link, http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php, pay the $25.00 processing fee with a credit card, and proceed as instructed.

For those county individuals who are required by to obtain an official, fingerprint-based background check for licensing, a passport, or some certification, there is an additional California DOJ webpage that handles these requests. Click this link to be transported to DOJ webpage: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/.

Internet users can also check the Megan’s Law registered sex offender database by clicking this link, and agreeing to the disclaimer: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.