Santa Clara County, California Criminal Records

Human resources departments and hiring managers are two groups that would be keenly interested in their job candidate’s public records, in order to determine if they are worthy of hire. The process of thoroughly searching through these public records is known as a background check. Once the background check has been completed and the potential hire’s public and private character has been revealed, the hiring company can decide whether to proceed with, or discontinue the hiring process. Transgressions that will almost always eliminate a job candidate from consideration are any recent felony convictions, especially any crime of a sexual nature, or a spotty public record in general. Companies can be held liable if they knowingly hired a convicted felon or sex offender who then went on to commit a crime in the workplace, so conducting background checks is a way to remain vigilant and compliant with company bylaws.

Court Records

During the process of gathering information from various public records sources, you will find that you can glean important information about an individual’s background through local court records. If you find that you have to visit the Santa Clara County Superior Court for court records, the criminal court locations are as follows:

Hall of Justice
190-200 West Hedding Street, San Jose CA 95110

Telephone: 408-808-6600

Palo Alto Courthouse

270 Grant Avenue, Palo Alto CA 94306

Telephone: 650-462-3800

South County Courthouse

301 Diana Avenue, Morgan Hill CA 95037

Telephone: 408-695-5000

Terraine Courthouse

115 Terraine Street, San Jose CA 95113

Telephone: 408-491-4700

You can find additional information about the court online, including a criminal case record search tool, located at this link: http://www.scscourt.org/index.shtm.

Public Records

While doing a background check in a particular county, that county’s sheriff’s office may have information about local gang and sex offender registration, outstanding warrants, and recent bookings. To get this information from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, you can visit in person here: 55 West Younger Ave, San Jose, California 95110. The sheriff’s telephone number is 408-808-4900, and the fax number is 408-283-0562. In addition, the sheriff’s office has a website complete with updated information on local criminal records located at the following link: http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/sheriff.

Online Resources

A states recent parolee’s, parole absconders, and citizens on probation will usually be listed with that state’s department of corrections. To run a target individual’s name through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s offender search, go to the webpage located at this link: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

If you want to obtain a copy of your own background check processed by the California Department of Justice, you also have the option of doing so. All that is required is a payment of $25.00 for records processing, Click this link for more details: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php.

The California DOJ also facilitates fingerprint-based background checks on behalf of local companies and organizations. To view detailed information on how to begin, go to the following webpage: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/.

You can effectively rule out an individual being a California sex offender by running their name through Megan’s Law registered sex offender database located at this link: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.