Santa Cruz County, California Criminal Records

When employers and hiring firms need to know the past history of a job candidate seeking employment, they will commence with a background check. Some hiring companies will handle the background check themselves, while other‘s may require the job applicant to pay for their own. Most background checks rely heavily on searching for an applicant’s criminal records if they happen to have one. If indeed the job candidate has ever been convicted of a crime, they will have a criminal history record. This information will then show up during the background check. Also, if an individual has ever been listed as a sex offender in a county or state, this information will also show up in their background check. A background check is not limited to an organization; private citizens regularly purchase and make use of background checks on people they know, for some of the very same reasons.

Court Records

Court records do not have to be the main source of public records used when conducting a background check, but they can contain valuable information about county individuals nonetheless. To gain access to the necessary court records for a citizen of Santa Cruz County, you are going to have to secure them from the Santa Cruz County Superior Court. Walk-in visitors can find the main courthouse located at the following address: 701 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz, California 95060. The court’s main telephone number for inquiries is 831-454-2200, and the e-mail address for criminal inquiries is criminalinfo@santacruzcourt.org. Additional case information can be found online at court’s webpage, which you can find at this link: http://www.santacruzcourt.org/index.htm.

Public Records

In many cases, you will discover that the county sheriff has information on local criminal happenings that may prove useful in assisting with a background check. In Santa Cruz County, you have several options for contacting the sheriff for information. The sheriff’s office is located at this address: 701 Ocean Street Room 340, Santa Cruz, California 95060. You can also call the sheriff’s office at 831-471-1121, or send the sheriff an e-mail inquiry here: shfcommentform@co.santa-cruz.ca.us. Also, you can do a search of the sheriff’s website for additional information by clicking this link: http://www.scsheriff.com/index.html.

Online Resources

Most companies will require a detailed explanation about the facts surrounding a case before hiring a paroled individual. To check if a person is a recent parolee, you can run their personal information through the online offender search tool found at the webpage of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. To use the search tool, click here: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

As a service to California residents, the California Department of Justice will allow residents to order their own background checks online for $25.00, so that they may view the information it contains. Click the following link for additional details: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php.

The California DOJ also provides a service to California citizens who are required to obtain an official, fingerprint-based background check on the behalf of a company, business, or licensing board. Click this link to view more information: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/.

Researchers who wish to run a California citizen’s information through the Megan’s Law sex offender database can do so by clicking the following link: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.