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 between September 23, 2026 and October 1, 2026.
San Francisco County, California, has about 828,000 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 San Francisco 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 and common questions.
Related guides: San Francisco County public records, San Francisco County arrest records, San Francisco County warrants, San Francisco County inmate search, San Francisco County court records, California arrest records and California inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco
In California the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from San Francisco County are heard by the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, which hears every civil, criminal, family, probate, traffic and juvenile case, and the file of each case is kept by the Superior Court clerk.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sf.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-information (page title: Case Information | Superior Court of California | County of San Francisco), 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 San Francisco County
The San Francisco County Sheriff's Office and the agency that reports for San Francisco keep the arrest records in San Francisco 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 two state police units, two campus police departments and two other agencies in San Francisco County (the arrest records guide names each one); each keeps the records of its own arrests.
The San Francisco County Sheriff's Office reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025; 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 San Francisco County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: San Francisco County in 2025
The one agency in San Francisco County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 3,964 violent and 24,134 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 28,098 crimes in 2025 against 36,600 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 San Francisco County public records guide.
The District Attorney for San Francisco County
The District Attorney decides which arrests in San Francisco County become charges and files them in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at careers.sf.gov/classifications/index.php?classCode=8198 (page title: 8198-District Attorney | City and County of San Francisco), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 1, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for San Francisco County
Registered sex offenders living in San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 sanfranciscopolice.org/get-service/public-records-request-incident-... (page title: Public Records Request (Incident Related Documentation/BWC) | San Francisco Police Department).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in San Francisco County?
The court files of criminal cases in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco 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 San Francisco County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at sf.courts.ca.gov (page title: Case Information | Superior Court of California | County of San Francisco).
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 San Francisco County?
The District Attorney, which files its cases in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.
Is this the official San Francisco 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.