Contra Costa County, California

The major suburban component of the San Francisco metropolitan area, Contra Costa County is home to roughly 1.1 million people. Other nearby counties include Solano, Sacramento, Alameda, and San Joaquin. Though primarily a bedroom community for San Francisco, Contra Costa’s economy is growing, with a minor industrial presence and key employers that include Chevron, C&H Sugar, and BART. 

Attractive suburban cities such as Walnut Creek and its proximity to the economic opportunities in San Francisco make Contra Costa County an increasingly popular region in which to live and work. New businesses serving these communities are taking advantage of a diverse labor market to scale up quickly. 

Tapping into the opportunities available here is something that businesses must do with care to ensure that they can enjoy the benefits of hiring talented individuals while avoiding potential hiring pitfalls.

A thoroughly-developed applicant vetting policy is a business’s best friend. Use robust background checks to better understand the applicants who seek your open positions. To avoid delays and unnecessary hassles, your business must be able to easily vet any applicant at any time with an accessible means of retrieving and evaluating relevant records—all with as little delay as possible. Where should you begin? 

Records maintained by Contra Costa County itself are an excellent place to start; any job-relevant adverse facts uncovered here will allow you to save time by disqualifying certain applicants at an earlier stage. For applicants who pass this stage, your business should examine their records more broadly by incorporating checks in nearby counties such as Alameda. Otherwise, you may never know that an individual with a relevant and recent criminal record elsewhere moved to Contra Costa for a fresh start.

Making a plan for using these tools is vital, but so is the ability to use them legally. Contra Costa County employers must abide by California’s ban the box law: applications cannot contain criminal history questions. Background checks are contingent upon a conditional offer of employment and the applicant’s permission. 

When making any consideration using criminal history, an employer must keep certain facts in mind, such as time elapsed, the relationship between the crime and the job role, and rehabilitative efforts. Applicants denied after a background check have the right to appeal the decision.

Always take steps to make your business legally compliant before beginning to vet applicants. Simplify the process of ordering a criminal history report with help from backgroundchecks.com. Our solutions are ideal for businesses operating at any scale.

Use our county-level background check to examine Contra Costa county court records before moving on to the bigger-picture view afforded by our US OneSEARCH, an innovative product that offers instant reports you can use right away with information from Sacramento County and many other regions. 

These tools rely on source data provided by county- and state-level databases maintained independently from our services. Information is subject to change. For the clearest view of which records are currently in the system, ask about our on-site courthouse search services. These in-person record reviews produce results in three business days.

The information that goes into our background checks includes details from the:

• California Department of Corrections – Felony records for offenders on parole, updates semi-annually
• California Sex Offender Registry – Updated bi-weekly
• Contra Costa County Superior Court – Felony and misdemeanor records from 1968-present, updated monthly

Information contained in these reports may include the subject’s:

• Name
• Offense
• Sentence length

 As Contra Costa County grows, equip your business with the power to make smart hiring decisions now and in the future.

Learn more about our county background check options