Search San Francisco Booking Records

San Francisco 72 hour booking records are available through the San Francisco Sheriff's Department. Unlike most California cities, San Francisco is both a city and a county, so the same agency handles policing and jail operations in one place. The San Francisco Sheriff runs the county jail system and maintains all booking data. When someone is arrested by SFPD or any other law enforcement in the city, they get booked at a San Francisco County Jail facility. That booking record becomes public under California law. You can search for current inmates through the sheriff's online tool for free.

San Francisco Sheriff Jail Search

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department runs a "Find a Person in Jail" tool on its website. You can access it at the SF Sheriff inmate search page. The tool lets you search by name to see who is currently in custody at San Francisco County Jail. Results include the booking date, charges, bail amount, and the facility where the person is held. It is free to use and available around the clock.

San Francisco operates several jail facilities. County Jail #2 at 425 7th Street is the main booking location in the city. County Jail #5 in San Bruno handles longer-term inmates. When someone is arrested in San Francisco, they are usually processed at County Jail #2 first. After booking, they may be moved to another facility based on classification and space.

The search tool updates throughout the day as new bookings happen and people are released. If you just heard about an arrest, there may be a delay of a few hours before the person shows up in the system. Give it some time and search again.

San Francisco Booking Law

California law requires San Francisco to make booking records public. Government Code §7923.610 lists every piece of booking data that must be released. This covers the person's name, date of birth, physical description, arrest time and date, booking time and date, arrest location, charges, bail, and the holding facility. San Francisco cannot hold this data back from public view.

Penal Code §851.5 also applies. It gives arrested people in San Francisco the right to make at least three phone calls within three hours of being booked. Those calls are free. The person can call a lawyer, a bail bondsman, or a family member. The jail must make a phone available.

Because San Francisco is a combined city-county, there is no separate layer of government between the city and the county. The sheriff handles it all. This actually makes things simpler for records requests compared to cities that sit in larger counties.

SFPD Public Records

The San Francisco Police Department handles arrest reports separately from booking records. If you need the police report for an arrest, that goes through SFPD rather than the sheriff. The department has a public records request form on its website. You can submit requests through the SFPD Public Records Request page.

The SFPD public records request portal is where you can submit requests for arrest reports, incident reports, and other police documentation from San Francisco.

SFPD processes requests under the California Public Records Act. The department has 10 days to respond. Some records may be redacted if there is an active investigation, but booking data itself is always public. The police report gives more detail about the circumstances of the arrest than the booking record alone.

For basic booking information like name, charges, and bail, the sheriff's online search is faster. For the full story behind an arrest, the SFPD report is what you want.

San Francisco Booking Process

Here is what happens when someone gets arrested in San Francisco. The arresting officer transports the person to County Jail #2 on 7th Street. At the jail, staff take fingerprints and a photograph. They record the person's name, date of birth, height, weight, and other identifying details. The charges are entered. Bail is set according to the San Francisco bail schedule, though a judge can adjust it later.

The booking process in San Francisco can take several hours. The jail processes a lot of people, especially on weekends and holidays. Once booking is complete, the record is entered into the system and becomes searchable online. The person is then classified and assigned to a housing unit or transferred to another facility.

San Francisco also has a pretrial diversion program. Some people arrested for low-level offenses may be released quickly or diverted to treatment programs instead of staying in jail. Even in those cases, a booking record is still created and remains public.

San Francisco County Connection

San Francisco is unique in California as a consolidated city-county. There is no separate county government. The San Francisco County page on this site covers the same jurisdiction. The sheriff, the police, and all city services operate under one government structure. This means when you search for booking records, there is only one system to check.

The San Francisco Superior Court is also part of this system. After someone is booked, their case goes to Superior Court for arraignment. Court records can be searched separately through the court's online portal. Those records show case outcomes, plea deals, and sentencing, which go beyond what a booking record contains.

How to Find San Francisco Bookings

Getting San Francisco booking data is straightforward. You have a few options depending on what you need:

• Use the SF Sheriff inmate search for current custody status
• Submit a request through the SFPD records portal for arrest reports
• Call the San Francisco County Jail at (415) 553-1430 for booking status
• File a Public Records Act request for older booking records
• Use VINELink to track custody changes and get release alerts

The online search is the fastest route. It takes less than a minute to look someone up. Phone calls work too, especially if you need help navigating the system. The jail information line can confirm if someone is in custody and give you basic booking details.

Nearby City Booking Records

San Francisco is close to several other Bay Area cities with their own booking records. Here are some nearby options:

• Oakland - across the bay in Alameda County
• Berkeley - also Alameda County, north of Oakland
• Richmond - Contra Costa County, north bay
• San Jose - Santa Clara County, south bay
• Fremont - Alameda County, east bay

Each of these cities falls under a different county sheriff for jail bookings. Oakland and Berkeley bookings go through Alameda County. Richmond goes through Contra Costa County. San Jose goes through Santa Clara County. The booking records process is the same under state law, but you need to search the right county system for each city.