Santa Barbara County, Criminal Records

A background check conducted by a hiring company’s human resources department will, among other things, conduct a thorough search through public records. This is done to determine whether a person seeking employment with that firm has an acceptable public record free of major transgressions. The type of transgressions uncovered that might disqualify a job candidate includes felonies, serious misdemeanors, sex offenses, and an overall poor public record. Human resources departments are not the only organizations that use public records for the purposes of conducting background checks; private citizens and Internet-based companies make use of these freely available records as well. Using an online company for a background check will almost always involve a fee; in some counties, a resident can even order a background check from the local sheriff’s office. However, the sheriff will charge fee for their services as well.

Court Records

The most thorough, comprehensive, and complete background checks will always include a search of a county’s court records. This can assist in ruling out whether a county individual has ever been charged with a crime, sued, or prosecuted. In Santa Barbara County, a citizen seeking court records will have to petition the Santa Barbara County Superior Court. There are four total courthouses that hear criminal cases, and their information is listed here:

Figueroa Division
118 East Figueroa Street, Santa Barbara CA 93101

Telephone: 805-568-3959 Fax: 805-882-4647

Lompoc Division

115 Civic Center Plaza, Lompoc CA 93436

Telephone: 805-737-7789 Fax: 805-737-5440

Miller Division

312 East Cook Street, Building E, Santa Maria CA 93454

Telephone: 805-614-6590 Fax: 805-614-6591

Santa Maria Pre-Trial Services

4251 California Blvd, Santa Maria CA 93455

Telephone: 805-934-6140 Fax: 805-934-6323

The Santa Barbara Superior Court has created a website for web users who need to access court information online, and can be accessed by clicking this link: http://www.sbcourts.org/index.asp.

Public Records

Accessing public records on file with the county sheriff’s office can provide information about county residents who have restraining orders against them, active fugitive warrants, and local sex offenders. The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office is located at the following address: 4434 Calle Real, Santa Barbara, California 93110. If you need to contact the sheriff by telephone, please call 805-681-4100. The sheriff’s office also has a county website filled with pertinent information about the county services provided by the sheriff, and is located here: http://www.sbsheriff.org.

Online Resources

For those county residents doing background checks and need additional parolee, absconder, and arrest warrant information, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations has an offender search tool setup online. Click here to use the search tool: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

California residents who want a copy of their own background check have the option of ordering one online from the California Department of Justice for only $25.00. To view the DOJ’s information page, click this link: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php.

If your company or organization requires you to obtain a fingerprint-based background check as one of their requirements, you can also order one of these from the California DOJ at the following webpage: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/.

If you want to run a California citizen’s name through the state’s sex offender registry, go the Megan’s Law webpage, located here: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.