Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest and crime counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site on September 23, 2026.
Lake County, California, has about 68,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In California the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Superior Court clerk; the statewide criminal history kept by the California Department of Justice is released only to its subject and to the employers and agencies the law allows. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Lake County is kept and how it is seen.
This guide covers the court file, the statewide record, local arrest records, the crimes behind the records, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests, directory links and common questions.
Related guides: Lake County public records, Lake County arrest records, Lake County warrants, Lake County inmate search, Lake County court records, California arrest records and California inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Superior Court of California, County of Lake
In California the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Lake County are heard by the Superior Court of California, County of Lake, which hears every civil, criminal, family, probate, traffic and juvenile case, and the file of each case is kept by the Superior Court clerk.
For Lake County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at portal.lake.courts.ca.gov/public-portal/?q=Home (page title: Lake County Superior Court | Lake County Superior Court), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
California has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The California Criminal History and Your Own Copy
The statewide criminal history kept by the California Department of Justice is closed to the public in California: it is released to its subject and to authorized employers and licensing agencies, and a member of the public uses the court's own case index instead.
To see your own record, the route is a Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR; the state fee is $25. The response cannot be used for immigration or visa purposes. Details are on the California Department of Justice page.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Lake County
The Lake County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Clearlake and Lakeport keep the arrest records in Lake County: the report and the booking record of each arrest stay with the agency that made it, separate from the court file and from the state repository.
The FBI's agency list also places one more agency in Lake County: the Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area Office (state police); it keeps the records of its own arrests.
Together, the three agencies in Lake County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,801 arrests to the FBI that year; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The agencies and their counts, year by year, are in Lake County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Lake County in 2025
The three agencies in Lake County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 401 violent and 657 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,058 crimes in 2025 against 1,227 in 2024. Each reported crime is a report on file with the agency that took it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The full crime section, agency by agency, is on the Lake County public records guide.
The District Attorney for Lake County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in Lake County become charges and files them in the Superior Court of California, County of Lake; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at lakecountyca.gov/203/District-Attorney (page title: District Attorney | Lake County, CA), phone 707-263-2251, Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Lake County
Registered sex offenders living in Lake County are listed on the Megan's Law website, run by the California Department of Justice at meganslaw.ca.gov. The registry is tiered; some registrants are kept off the public site and others are shown by ZIP code only.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the sheriff's office, or the city police in a city with its own department.
Asking an Agency in Lake County for a Record
An arrest report, a booking record or a local criminal history letter comes from the agency that holds it, not from the court.
Under the California Public Records Act a county office must answer a request within 10 days, with up to 14 more days in unusual circumstances, and it may charge the direct cost of copying only, not staff time. The county records request page SearchSystems verified is at lakecountyca.gov/FormCenter/Sheriff-10/Public-Records-Request-Form-76 (page title: Form Center, Public Records Request Form).
More Official Criminal Records Pages for Lake County
The SearchSystems directory, online since 1997, lists the official pages for Lake County and California. These criminal records pages from its Lake County listing were opened again on October 2, 2026 and each one still answers:
- Crime Data, State of California (oag.ca.gov)
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Lake County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of Lake are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the California Department of Justice is not public; you can get your own for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the California Public Records Act.
Can I search Lake County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at portal.lake.courts.ca.gov (page title: Lake County Superior Court | Lake County Superior Court).
How do I get my own California criminal history?
A Record Review through Live Scan fingerprinting, form BCIA 8016RR; the state fee is $25.
Who prosecutes crimes in Lake County?
The District Attorney, reached at 707-263-2251, which files its cases in the Superior Court of California, County of Lake.
Is this the official Lake County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.