San Diego Booking Records
San Diego 72 hour booking records are public and show who has been booked into jail in the city. As the second largest city in California with more than 1.4 million residents, San Diego sees thousands of arrests each year. The San Diego Police Department handles law enforcement in the city, but all jail bookings go through the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. When SDPD officers arrest someone, that person is taken to one of the county jail facilities for processing. You can search booking records through the Sheriff's online "Who's In Jail" tool. California Government Code 7923.610 requires all booking data to be made public within 72 hours.
San Diego Booking Quick Facts
San Diego Booking in San Diego County
San Diego is the county seat of San Diego County, the second most populated county in California. The county runs its jail system through the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. There are several jail facilities in the county, including the San Diego Central Jail, the Vista Detention Facility, the George Bailey Detention Facility, and the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility. Most people arrested by SDPD in central San Diego are booked at the Central Jail downtown. The facility sits at 1173 Front Street in San Diego.
The San Diego Police Department is one of the largest municipal police forces in the state. SDPD has over 1,800 sworn officers who patrol the city. When they make an arrest, the booking process follows standard county procedures. Jail staff take fingerprints, a booking photo, and record all charges. The bail amount is set based on the San Diego County bail schedule. This information then becomes part of the public booking record that anyone can look up.
Note: SDPD does not run its own jail. All bookings go through the county sheriff's system, so you search for San Diego arrests on the county database.
San Diego Sheriff Who's In Jail
The San Diego County Sheriff runs a free online search tool called "Who's In Jail." You can access it at apps.sdsheriff.net to find anyone currently in custody at any of the county's jail facilities. The tool lets you search by name and shows the person's booking date, charges, bail amount, and which facility they are held at. Results are updated regularly and cover all inmates across the county system.
The San Diego Police Department also has a records section where you can request police reports. You can learn more about that process at the SDPD records page.
The SDPD records page covers how to get police reports, which are separate from booking records. Police reports give details about what happened during the arrest. Booking records focus on who was booked, the charges, and bail. For current jail status, the sheriff's Who's In Jail tool is the faster option. For a copy of the police report tied to an arrest, you would go through SDPD's records unit.
The Who's In Jail database only shows people who are still in custody. Once someone is released, they drop off the search results. If you need booking data for someone who has already been released, you can file a public records request with the sheriff's department. You can also check the county's booking log, which lists recent bookings for a rolling window of time.
San Diego Booking Law
California law requires law enforcement agencies to release booking information to the public. Government Code 7923.610 spells out what must be shared. The list includes the person's full name, date and time of booking, charges, bail amount, and the name of the arresting agency. For San Diego arrests, the arresting agency is typically SDPD, and the booking agency is the San Diego County Sheriff.
Beyond the 72 hour booking rule, Penal Code 851.5 gives booked individuals the right to phone calls. Within three hours of being booked, each person can make at least three free calls. These can go to a lawyer, bail agent, or a family member. The jail cannot block or charge for the calls. This right applies at every booking facility in San Diego County.
If someone requests booking records and the request is denied, the California Public Records Act provides a way to challenge it. In practice, the San Diego County Sheriff makes most current booking data available online, so formal PRA requests are mainly needed for older records or for records that have been removed from the active database.
San Diego Jail Facilities
San Diego County operates several jail facilities. The main ones that handle bookings for San Diego city arrests are:
- San Diego Central Jail, 1173 Front Street, San Diego, CA 92101
- George Bailey Detention Facility, 446 Alta Road, San Diego, CA 92158
- Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, 451 Riverview Parkway, Santee, CA 92071
- Vista Detention Facility, 325 South Melrose Drive, Vista, CA 92081
- East Mesa Reentry Facility, 446 Alta Road, San Diego, CA 92158
The Central Jail downtown is where most SDPD arrests are processed. It is the closest county jail to the SDPD headquarters. George Bailey and Las Colinas handle overflow and certain classifications of inmates. The Vista facility mainly serves the northern part of the county. All of these facilities feed into the same booking database, so the Who's In Jail search covers them all.
You can call the San Diego County Sheriff's Department at (619) 615-2700 for general questions about someone in custody. The non-emergency line can confirm if a person is currently held at one of the county jails. For detailed booking records or copies of booking sheets, a written public records request is the standard process.
Request San Diego Booking Records
For records that are not on the online search tool, you can file a public records request. The San Diego County Sheriff accepts requests by mail, email, or through its website. Include the full name of the person, the approximate date of arrest, and any other details you have. The sheriff's office must respond within 10 days under the California Public Records Act. There may be a fee for copies of records.
You can also get records through the San Diego Police Department if you need the police report that goes with a booking. SDPD charges fees for report copies, which vary based on the type of report. The records division is at SDPD headquarters on Broadway. Walk-in requests are accepted during business hours. You can also submit requests online through the SDPD records page.
For statewide criminal history, the California Department of Justice handles background checks. That process requires fingerprint submission and takes longer than a local records request. The DOJ process is mainly used for employment screening and licensing, not for looking up recent bookings.
Note: The San Diego County jail system is large. If you are not sure which facility someone was booked into, the Who's In Jail search covers all county jails at once.
Nearby City Booking Records
Several other cities near San Diego have their own police departments but use the same county jail system. Booking records for these cities are all searchable through the San Diego County Sheriff's database. Here are nearby cities with booking pages.
All of these cities are in San Diego County and share the same booking system. Chula Vista is notable because it is one of the few cities in the county with its own city jail. The rest feed directly into the county facilities. For cities outside San Diego County, Riverside is the next closest major city to the east.