Santa Clara County Booking Records

Santa Clara County 72 hour booking records are searchable through the county's online inmate search tool. The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office runs the main jail in San Jose and provides free public access to booking and custody data. Santa Clara County is one of the most populated counties in California and home to Silicon Valley. The county processes a high volume of daily bookings from multiple police agencies. This page covers how to search Santa Clara County booking records, what the online tool shows, and your legal rights to this data under California law.

Santa Clara Inmate Search Tool

The Santa Clara County Sheriff runs an inmate search tool through the county's eServices portal. This is the main way to look up booking records online. You can search by first name, last name, or booking number. The system returns results from the Santa Clara County jail system. Each record shows the person's name, booking date, charges, bail amount, and custody status.

The inmate search covers all facilities operated by the Santa Clara County Sheriff. The main jail is in downtown San Jose. The Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas is the other major facility. Both feed into the same search system. You do not need to know which facility someone is at. Just search by name and the tool will find them if they are in custody anywhere in the Santa Clara County jail system.

Santa Clara County is large. It has nearly two million residents. The inmate search database reflects that volume. A common name search might return multiple results. Use the person's full name and any other details you have to narrow things down. The more specific your search, the faster you find the right booking record.

Santa Clara Booking Screenshot

The Santa Clara County inmate search is hosted on the county's eServices platform and provides fast access to booking data.

The screenshot shows the inmate search interface. The form is simple. Enter a name and hit search. Results come back with key booking data. The tool works on desktop and mobile browsers. Santa Clara County keeps it updated around the clock as new bookings come in and releases happen.

Santa Clara Booking Law

California Government Code 7923.610 requires all law enforcement agencies to make booking records public. Santa Clara County follows this law. The statute says agencies must release the person's full name, date of birth, physical description, arrest date and time, booking date and time, arrest location, charges, bail, and holding facility. None of this data can be withheld from the public. The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office meets this requirement through its online inmate search tool.

Booking records sit in a protected category under the California Public Records Act. While police can keep investigative files confidential, booking data is always public. This applies to every booking at every facility in Santa Clara County. Whether the arrest was made by the San Jose Police Department, Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, or the sheriff's office, the booking record becomes public once the person is processed at the county jail.

People booked in Santa Clara County have rights under Penal Code 851.5. Three free phone calls within three hours of booking. Calls can go to a lawyer, bail agent, or family member. The jail staff cannot deny these calls or charge for them. This applies at both the main jail and the Elmwood facility.

Santa Clara County Jail System

Santa Clara County operates two main jail facilities. The Main Jail South is at 150 West Hedding Street in San Jose. This is where most initial bookings happen. The Elmwood Correctional Facility at 701 South Abel Street in Milpitas handles sentenced inmates and some pretrial detainees. Both facilities are run by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and both contribute to the inmate search database.

You can reach the Santa Clara County Sheriff at (408) 299-2101. For jail information, call the main jail at (408) 299-2253. Walk-in records requests are accepted at the sheriff's office during business hours. Written requests can go to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, Records Unit, 55 West Younger Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110. Include the person's name and approximate booking date to speed up the search.

The volume of bookings in Santa Clara County is high. San Jose alone has over a million residents. Add in the populations of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and other cities, and the county jail system stays busy. Multiple police departments feed arrests into the same booking system. The inmate search tool captures them all.

• Main Jail South at 150 W. Hedding St., San Jose
• Elmwood Correctional Facility at 701 S. Abel St., Milpitas
• Free online inmate search through eServices
• Records requests by mail, phone, or walk-in
• All local police agencies book through the county system

Note: The Santa Clara County inmate search covers both the main jail and Elmwood Correctional Facility in one search.

Santa Clara Booking Data Fields

Each booking record in Santa Clara County contains the standard data fields that California law mandates. You get the person's full legal name and date of birth. A physical description follows with height, weight, and any distinguishing features. The arrest details include when and where it happened. The booking section shows when the person was processed at the jail. All charges are listed by California code section. Bail appears as a dollar amount or a hold notation.

Booking photos may or may not be visible through the online search tool. Some entries include a photo and some do not. If you need a booking photo that is not showing online, file a records request with the sheriff's office. The underlying data is always public. The photo is part of the booking record and should be available upon request.

Cities in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County includes several large cities. The city of San Jose is the county seat and the most populated city in the Bay Area. Other major cities include Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. Below are the cities in this county that have their own pages on this site.

Sunnyvale and Santa Clara are also large cities in the county. All bookings from these cities go through the Santa Clara County Sheriff's jail system. Use the county inmate search tool to look up booking records from any city in the county.

Nearby County Booking Records

Santa Clara County is surrounded by several other California counties in the Bay Area and Central Valley. Check these neighbors if you need booking data from outside Santa Clara County.