Riverside County, California Public Records

From the agency that made the arrest, by a California Public Records Act request. For the Riverside County Sheriff's Office that is its Public Records Center or its CPRA Unit at 4095 Lemon Street, 5th Floor, Riverside; for an arrest by one of the twelve city police departments, that city's records unit. The Sheriff's Inmate Locator gives the booking information for anyone in the five county jails but is not a photo gallery. Under Penal Code 13665 a sheriff or police department may not post on social media the booking photo of a person arrested for a nonviolent crime unless an exception applies, and must take down a photo it did post within 14 days unless an exception still applies.

The state criminal history record comes from the California Department of Justice and only to the person it is about: fingerprints are taken at a Live Scan site, the Department's record review instructions are followed, and the fee is $25 to the Department plus the Live Scan operator's rolling fee, with a fee waiver possible. The Sheriff's Information Services Bureau at 4095 Lemon Street does applicant fingerprinting and local criminal record reviews, and its FAQ points the public to the state Live Scan index for sites, fees and hours. An employer or landlord uses a licensed background check company instead; what the public can see of a conviction in Riverside County is the Superior Court case, searched by name in the Public Access portal for $1 a name.

The California Megan's Law Website (Department of Justice) lists the registrants of Riverside County by name, address or ZIP code, and the National Sex Offender Public Website of the U.S. Department of Justice searches every state at once. Registration itself is done with the Sheriff's station or the city police department where the person lives, and since January 1, 2021 California has used three tiers of 10 years, 20 years and life; the Sheriff's Office explains on its SB 384 page how a registrant petitions the Superior Court to end the requirement, with its SB 384 Unit checking the petition and the District Attorney reviewing it before a judge decides.

With the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, 2720 Gateway Drive, Riverside, (951) 486-7200, whose site is among the sources above, or through the California Secretary of State on paper or on the state online registration site. A voter who moves, changes a name or changes party must register again, and paper forms are at post offices, libraries, city and county offices and the DMV, or the Registrar mails one on request. Registration closes 15 days before an election; after that a conditional registration ballot is cast at any vote center in the county and counted during the 28 day canvass, as the Registrar's own questions and answers explain.

Deeds and other recorded land documents in Riverside County are kept by the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, whose official records index search covers documents recorded since 1975 and sells copies at $8 for the first page. Values are set by the Assessor side of the same department, searched by parcel number or address and shown with sales and permits on RivCoView, and tax bills come from the Treasurer-Tax Collector, searched and paid through its portal. A value can be contested through the Assessment Appeals Division of the Clerk of the Board at 4080 Lemon Street, Window 1, (951) 955-9688. The state Board of Equalization explains how assessor, recorder and tax collector divide the work in every California county.

For a birth or death in the current or the previous year, from the Office of Vital Records of Riverside University Health System Public Health, 4065 County Circle Drive, Suite 102, Riverside, (951) 358-5068, $34 for a birth and $26 for a death certificate, in person with picture identification weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or by mail with a notarized sworn statement. For anything older, from the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder at the same fees, same day at its Riverside, Palm Desert, Hemet and Temecula offices. The California Department of Public Health, Vital Records (CDPH VR) also issues certified copies statewide by mail with form VS 111 to MS 5103, P.O. Box 997410, Sacramento, CA 95899-7410, at $31 a birth record, and since July 1, 2026 it accepts no applications sent through online third party vendors.

Business entity filings are searched with the California Secretary of State (bizfile Online) at no charge, and a fictitious business name with the Riverside County Clerk, part of the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, through the search linked above. Riverside County issues no general business license: a business in the unincorporated areas deals with the state tax agency, Planning, Building and Safety and Environmental Health, and each of the 28 incorporated cities licenses the businesses inside its limits itself; the City of Riverside does so through its Finance Department business tax certificate, filed online, with questions to (951) 826-5465.

In the Superior Court's Public Access portal, linked among the court sources above, which holds civil, small claims, family law, probate, criminal and traffic cases from one index for all 13 courthouses. Searching by name costs $1 a name in credits ($3.50 for five names, $5 for ten), the Court will search for $15 a name through its record search request site, and a document image is $1 a page for the first five pages and 50 cents a page after that, capped at $50 a document. Certified copies come from the clerk's office of the courthouse holding the file, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, by appointment if you prefer.

Search the Sheriff's Inmate Locator by booking number or by last name, first name and date of birth; it covers the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, (951) 955-4500, the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, (951) 696-3050, the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, (951) 922-7300, the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, (760) 863-8252, and the Blythe Jail, (760) 921-5780. A visit is booked by phone the day before, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and each inmate may have two visits a week of about 45 minutes. Someone arrested by a city police department may still be at that department before the booking reaches the county system.

From the agency that wrote it. For a Sheriff's report from 2000 onward, ask the station that handled the incident, with a government photo ID and the fee paid first, and call ahead if the incident is less than 14 days old; older reports and mailed requests go to the Information Services Bureau, 4095 Lemon Street, 5th Floor, Riverside, (951) 955-2400. The Riverside Police Department sells a traffic collision report for $20 at its Magnolia Station counter, 10540 Magnolia Avenue, about ten working days after the crash, Records Bureau (951) 826-5700, option 2. Reports are released to involved parties, victims and others the state codes define, not to the general public.

From the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder. Find the document in the official records index search listed under More sources, which covers recordings since 1975, and order a regular or a certified copy: $8 for the first page, $1 for each page after it and $2 to certify, with a 2.15 percent fee for a card payment online and about 48 hours of processing before mailing. By mail, send the Official Records application with a check to Riverside County Clerk-Recorder, Attn Certified Section, P.O. Box 751, Riverside, CA 92502-0751, and allow one to two weeks; write NTE and a limit on the check if the exact fee is unknown. In person, any of the six offices prints the copy the same day; documents from 1974 and earlier are searched only at 2724 Gateway Drive.

From the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, for marriages licensed in Riverside County, at $19 a certified copy, the same price for a confidential marriage certificate. Order online with identity verification for an authorized copy, in person at the Gateway, Downtown Riverside, Palm Desert, Hemet or Temecula office with a government ID, or by mail with the notarized marriage application and a check to P.O. Box 751, Riverside, CA 92502-0751. An informational copy is issued to anyone else but is not valid for legal purposes. The license itself, public or confidential, comes from the same department, which also performs civil ceremonies at its offices and at the 14th Street Chapel downtown.

Through the county's NextRequest portal for most departments, linked among the sources above; the District Attorney and the Sheriff each have a Public Records Center of their own, also linked, and the Executive Office will say which department holds a record if that is unclear. The Sheriff's CPRA Unit, 4095 Lemon Street, 5th Floor, also takes requests in writing, in person at any station and by email, needs no reason for the request, answers within 10 days of receipt with one written 14 day extension and charges only the direct cost of duplication. The City of Riverside runs a separate Public Records Center for its departments, and Superior Court records are outside the Act.

The Court's Where Cases Are Heard page, under More sources, keys each case number prefix to a courthouse, and the register of actions names the department. Criminal cases are heard in Riverside, Banning, Blythe, Indio and Murrieta; civil cases in Riverside, Banning, Blythe, Corona, Menifee, Moreno Valley, Murrieta and Palm Springs; family law at the Riverside Family Law Courthouse, 4175 Main Street, and in Blythe, Indio and Menifee; probate at the Historic Courthouse, 4050 Main Street, in Palm Springs and at the Southwest Justice Center; juvenile matters at 9991 County Farm Road in Riverside and in Murrieta. Every notice of appeal may be filed at any courthouse, but the Appeals Department sits in the Hall of Justice, 4100 Main Street.

The Coroner is the Sheriff, since the two offices merged on January 4, 1999. Coroner West is at 800 South Redlands Avenue, Perris, (951) 443-2300, and Coroner East at 47225 Oasis Street, Indio, (760) 863-8311. The bureau investigates every violent, sudden or unusual death, including deaths in custody, deaths of children, unattended deaths and any death a physician cannot certify, and may file a death certificate as pending within the eight day state deadline while the investigation continues. The death certificate itself is bought from the Office of Vital Records or, after the following year, from the Clerk-Recorder, not from the Coroner.

In the unincorporated areas, with the Building and Safety Department of the Transportation and Land Management Agency, 4080 Lemon Street, 9th Floor, (951) 955-1800: its permit lookup and online services, both among the sources above, return permits, inspection history and cases by Assessor's parcel number, and a records request is made through the department. Inside the City of Riverside, the Building and Safety Division issues about 6,000 permits a year and keeps every completed permit for the life of the structure in its online permit records. Each of the other 27 cities issues and keeps its own permits.

Ownership is not printed on the Assessor's maps and the online property search is keyed to the parcel, so the owner of record is read on the public computers and microfiche at any Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder office during business hours, or on the recorded deed, found through the official records index search and bought for $8 for the first page. A property tax bill from the Treasurer-Tax Collector is addressed to the assessee, and a duplicate bill costs $3.41. The Assessor sells bulk assessment data too, and its property sales report lists two years of transfers.

On the Secretary of State's voter status check, which the Riverside County Registrar of Voters links as Am I Registered and which is among the state sources above, or by calling the Registrar on (951) 486-7200, weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. A voter who has moved inside the county without updating the record is asked to call so the office can explain the procedure and where to vote. The county had about 1.416 million registered voters in 2025, and its voter registration summary is published on the Registrar's site.

Federal civil and criminal cases from Riverside County are filed in the Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Central District of California at the George E. Brown, Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse, 3470 Twelfth Street, Riverside, (951) 328-4450, open for business 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays; the dockets are on PACER. Bankruptcy cases from Riverside and San Bernardino counties are heard by the Riverside Division of the United States Bankruptcy Court at 3420 Twelfth Street, also 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with automated case information on (866) 222-8029 and no public parking at the courthouse itself.

Twelve of the 28 cities: Riverside, Corona, Hemet, Murrieta, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, Beaumont, Banning, Blythe and Menifee, each with its own records unit for reports and arrests. Fifteen cities contract with the Sheriff's Office, whose station pages name them: Calimesa from the Cabazon Station, Moreno Valley (since 1985), Perris (since 1996), Norco, Eastvale and Jurupa Valley from the Jurupa Valley Station, Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, San Jacinto, Temecula from the Southwest Station, Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage from the Palm Desert Station, and Coachella and La Quinta from the Thermal Station. Each city page linked below carries that city's own offices.

With an application for changed assessment to the Assessment Appeals Division of the Clerk of the Board, 4080 Lemon Street, 1st Floor, Window 1, Riverside, (951) 955-9688, filed on paper or through its online application; the division schedules the hearing, keeps the records of the Assessment Appeals Boards and publishes the forms, the rules of notice and procedure and a guide to preparing for the hearing. A decline in value review is a separate request made to the Assessor through its e-forms, and the Assessor's services page lists that form beside the homeowners' exemption and the supplemental tax estimator.