Untitled California Attorney General Opinion

BACKGROUND

The Department of Justice, under the direction of the Attorney General, maintains a compilation of criminal history information that is officially known as “state summary criminal history information” and is commonly known as an individual’s “RAP sheet.” 1 This is a “master record of information” pertaining to the identification and criminal history of a person, “such as name, date of birth, physical description, fingerprints, photographs, dates of arrests, arresting agencies and booking numbers, charges, dispositions, sentencing information, and similar data about the person.”

An individual’s RAP sheet is readily available to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies, including a district attorney, via a computer query to the Department of Justice over the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS).

1 Pen. Code, § 11105, subd. (a)(2)(A). “RAP” stands for “record of arrests and prosecutions.” (See, e.g., Cal. Code Regs., tit. 15, § 2449.4 [Board of Parole Hearings].) The term is also commonly used in connection with local summary criminal history information (see Pen. Code, pt. 4, tit. 3, ch. 2, art. 6, § 13300 et seq.), but we use the term…