Search Santa Clara County 24 Hour Booking

Santa Clara County 24 hour booking records track who has been arrested and booked into the county jail in the heart of Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office runs an online inmate search through the OVR system that lets you look up current inmates and recent bookings at the Main Jail and Elmwood Correctional Facility. This search is free. Anyone can use it. You do not need an account or special access. Santa Clara County booking entries show names, charges, bail amounts, booking dates, and custody status for people processed through the county jail system.

Santa Clara County Booking Search Online

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office provides an inmate search tool through its OVR system at eservices.sccgov.org/ovr/findinmate/find. This is the primary place to look up 24 hour booking records in Santa Clara County. The portal covers both the Main Jail in San Jose and Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas. You search by name. Type in the first or last name and the system returns matching records from the Santa Clara County jail database. Each result shows the booking date, charges, bail amount, and current housing location.

Santa Clara County is the most populous county in the Bay Area. It handles a high volume of bookings every day. The Main Jail sits at 150 West Hedding Street in San Jose. Elmwood is at 701 South Abel Street in Milpitas. Both take in new arrests around the clock. Once the booking process wraps up, the record becomes available in the OVR search. That usually takes a few hours after the arrest, though it can vary based on jail volume. Weekend nights tend to have longer wait times before records post.

Call the Main Jail at (408) 808-2800 if you need help with a booking lookup or cannot find what you need on the website. Staff can search by name or booking number over the phone during regular hours.

How Santa Clara County Processes Bookings

When someone is arrested anywhere in Santa Clara County, they are transported to one of the county jail facilities for booking. The arresting agency could be the Santa Clara County Sheriff, the San Jose Police Department, the Santa Clara Police, or any other local department in the county. The booking process is the same regardless of which agency makes the arrest. Staff at the jail take the person's photo, collect personal information, record the charges, and assign a booking number. All of this creates the 24 hour booking record that appears in the public search system.

San Jose makes up the bulk of arrests in the county. It is the largest city and has its own police department with a records division at sjpd.org/records. However, once someone is booked into the county jail, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's booking database is where that record lives. The San Jose Police handle the arrest report side. The county handles the custody and booking side. For 24 hour booking data, the county OVR system is what you want.

The city of Santa Clara also publishes a weekly arrest log at santaclaraca.gov. This log covers arrests made by Santa Clara city police. It gives a summary of all arrests made during the week. For full booking details and custody status, you still need to use the county's OVR inmate search tool.

Note: Booking records appear in the online system after intake is complete, which can take several hours on busy nights.

Santa Clara County Arrest Record Details

Santa Clara County booking records contain specific data points required by California law. Government Code Section 7923.610 mandates that law enforcement agencies make this information available to the public. The booking entry for each arrest in Santa Clara County includes the full name of the arrested person, their date of birth, and a physical description covering height, weight, eye color, and hair color. The date and time of the arrest are listed. So are the charges and the bail amount for each charge.

Santa Clara County booking records also include:

• Location of the arrest
• Arresting agency name
• Current holding facility and housing unit
• Any holds from other jurisdictions or agencies
• Release information if the person has been let go

The OVR system shows this data for current inmates. Older records that are no longer in the active system may need a formal records request. The California DOJ public records page outlines the state rules for requesting records from any law enforcement agency, including the Santa Clara County Sheriff.

Public Records in Santa Clara County

Booking data in Santa Clara County is public. You do not need a reason to search. Anyone can look up who was recently booked into the county jail. The California Public Records Act protects this right. If the online tool does not have what you need, you can submit a formal request. The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office uses the NextRequest system for public records, which makes it easy to submit and track requests online.

Under Penal Code Section 851.91, people who were arrested but not convicted can petition to seal their arrest records. If a court grants the petition, the Santa Clara County Sheriff removes the record from public access. Sealed records will not appear in the OVR inmate search or in response to public records requests. This is a protection that applies across all of California, and Santa Clara County follows it like every other county.

The California Department of Justice also tracks arrest data statewide. The Open Justice data portal shows arrest statistics broken down by county, age, gender, and race. This is not the same as individual booking records, but it gives context on arrest trends in Santa Clara County and across California.

Santa Clara County Booking Resources

The California Department of Justice provides an overview of public records rights that applies to all counties including Santa Clara. You can view the DOJ's public records page in the screenshot below.

This page from the California DOJ explains the Public Records Act and how it applies to booking data requests in counties like Santa Clara.

Santa Clara County Jail Contact Info

You can call the Santa Clara County Main Jail at (408) 808-2800 for questions about bookings, custody status, bail, and visiting. The jail is at 150 West Hedding Street in San Jose. Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas also processes bookings. Both locations are run by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

For records requests or general questions about booking data access, reach the Sheriff's main office. You can also visit the jail lobby during posted hours to ask about a specific person or request a printed copy of a booking record. The staff can pull up records and print them for a small copy fee. This works well if you want a paper copy of a Santa Clara County 24 hour booking entry or if the online OVR system is not working when you need it.

Cities in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County includes several major cities. Arrests by city police in these areas are booked into the Santa Clara County jail system. Use the county inmate search to find bookings from any city in the county.

Nearby California Counties

These counties border Santa Clara County. Each runs its own booking search system.