Your Criminal Record

If you have ever been taken into custody by the police, you have a criminal record. The record begins with the “mug shots” and fingerprints that were taken by the police. The record will also contain other information about you as a person as well as a summary of all your encounters with the justice system. The summary of your encounters with the police and the courts is called a “rap sheet” and contains a summary of your arrests, including the charges and sentences, fingerprint identification number Criminal Identification Information (CII) number, FBI number, Social Security number, and California driver’s license number.

Your record is sent to the state and federal agencies that keep criminal records. All California criminal records are kept by the State Department of Justice. National criminal records are kept by the FBI. You are entitled to have accurate records on file, but the California Department of Justice has been known to be slow to update criminal records to show dismissed charges and correct clerical errors. The FBI is apparently even worse in the area of correcting and updating criminal records.

Because of the likelihood that your criminal record may not be accurate, you should know (1) what your criminal record looks like, (2) where it is kept, and (3) who has authority to look at your criminal record.

You can get a copy of your criminal record in order to see what is on it and to check for errors. You can request your record from the FBI by sending them a letter asking for it, along with a copy of your fingerprints and a fee. California criminal records can be obtained from the California Department of Justice by filling out a form and returning it with a fee.

Your criminal records are not public record. They can only be released to a restricted group of individuals or agencies. For instance, if you are applying for a job, your potential employer cannot require you to get a copy of your criminal record as a condition of employment. However, if you are applying for a job as a policeman, in the courts, as a prosecutor, or in the probation and parole departments, these agencies are tied into the criminal justice system and can obtain access to your criminal record. Likewise, if you are applying for a job where you will been taking care of children or for certain security-related jobs, your potential employer may obtain your records from the California Department of Justice.

If you were convicted of crimes as a juvenile, the privacy of your juvenile court records is somewhat more protected than the records of adult offenders. However, if a juvenile court concludes that you have committed a felony, the judge in your case will report your felony conviction to the California Department of Justice, which will make it available for inspection, as it would with any adult record. The court will also notify the sheriff in the county where the crime occurred and also in the county where you now life, and the sheriff can notify other law enforcement agencies. Minors 14 years old or older who have committed serious felonies may have their name and crimes disclosed by law enforcement upon request to any “interested persons” (i.e., anyone in the public who has some legitimate interest in knowing your criminal record).

It is important to note that the California Department of Justice has an ongoing program of destroying records after from 2 to 10 years, depending on the offense. Therefore, when you request your record, you may receive a response that no record exists. This does not mean that you no longer have a criminal record. You should seek the advice of an experienced attorney to try to obtain the record, and have the record sealed, expunged or destroyed.


About the author: Kathleen Lord-Black is a U.S. immigration lawyer.  Her offices are located in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has served as Immigration Consultant for the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, 2005 Chair of the Immigration Section of the Barristers Club of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and former Congressional liaison for U.S. Representative Farr. Ms. Lord-Black is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. Her articles regularly appear in the Bay Area Arabic-language newspaper, Alra’i Alarabi. Ms. Lord-Black can be reached via email at kathleen@kathleenlord.com; and by telephone at (360) 329-2436 (U.S.) and (604) 352-2006 (Canada). www.immigration-etats-unis.com