California Criminal Records are available at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General. Any member of the general public has the right to access them per the Freedom of Information Act. The records contain vital pieces of information such as the name of the offender, the nature of offense/s committed, and the time and place where it was committed. If the offender is acquitted of the crime he or she was accused of, the records will not be revealed to the public.

Requesting your own criminal records is permitted by the Department of Justice so you can check if there is any inaccurate information. If there are any, you can have it reviewed and corrected by securing the Claim of Alleged Inaccuracy or Incompleteness form. Supply all the required information and submit it back to the department along with your criminal record.

To start a search, head to the Department of Justice and secure the Live Scan form. Supply all the necessary information about the record you want to obtain and your own contact details. Next, get your fingerprint scanned at the nearest authorized live scan operator you can find. You will be given a fingerprint card, which you will need to present to the department along with the completed request form, a government-issued ID, and the appropriate fees when you submit your request. There is a separate fee for getting your fingerprint scanned and for requesting the records. You may also request the records at the office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or directly at the arresting agency where they are originally filed.

The records of other people can also be requested but there are only a select group of people that are allowed to do so. Law enforcers are allowed to access criminal records of people especially if it is necessary for an ongoing investigation. Employers are allowed so they can make sure that they hire employees that abide by the law. Landlords are given access so they can carefully select who they accept as tenants. And there are special cases where an ordinary citizen can view the basics of other people's records for the purpose of conducting a background check.

The records can also be obtained from online service providers that specialized in providing them to the public. There are several of such providers that are authorized by the government but there are also some that are bogus ones. To make sure that you are getting authentic information, conduct a background check on them first. Try to see if other users are satisfied with the kind of information that they were provided with.

There are two types of online service providers: fee-based and those that provide Criminal Records Free To Public. Fee-based service providers usually have the ability to provide extensive versions of the records, which means they can get you a lot of information, while free service providers usually just provide the basics. Once you obtain the records you want, make sure you do not use it to defame, embarrass, harass, or blackmail other people or else you will be punished accordingly by the law.