How to Get a Police Report in California (2026): Crash & Incident Reports

Which agency investigated your crash decides how you request a copy in California. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) covers state highways and areas under its jurisdiction, using its own form and its own fee schedule. A crash on a city street instead goes through that city's police department under the California Public Records Act (CPRA).

California's bodycam access rules are similarly two-layered. Penal Code 832.7, enacted through SB 1421 and later amendments, decides what categories of footage must be released. A separate statute governs when it must be released. Reading only one of the two gives an incomplete picture, so both are covered below.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Get a California Crash Report

CHP-investigated crashes: Use CHP Form 190, 'Application for Release of Information,' available on the CHP's own page. Submit it in person at any CHP office, or by mail to the office that filed the report. CHP's page shows no online submission option; treat any secondary source describing an online CHP channel as unconfirmed until you check with the specific office.

Fee: Tiered by page count, confirmed directly on the CHP's own page: $10.00 for 1-25 pages, $20.00 for 26-50, $30.00 for 51-75, $40.00 for 76-100, plus $10.00 for each additional 25 pages beyond 100. By mail, CHP accepts personal check or money order only, no cash and no credit or debit cards.

Who may obtain a copy: Driver, passenger, property owner, vehicle owner, parent of a minor, or legal guardian, plus insurance companies, attorneys, coroners, and Caltrans, per CHP's own eligibility list. This mirrors California Vehicle Code 20012, which makes crash reports confidential for the department's own use while requiring disclosure of the full report, names, addresses, vehicle descriptions, diagrams, and witness statements included, to 'any person who may have a proper interest therein.'

Local-agency crashes: If a city police department investigated (rather than CHP), submit a California Public Records Act request to that department's own records unit instead.

How to Get a California Police Incident Report

An incident report for an arrest, theft, or other non-crash offense goes through a standard California Public Records Act (CPRA) request to the investigating local agency.

The CPRA's law enforcement exemption, Government Code 7923.600 (renumbered in 2023 from former Government Code 6254(f)), does not require disclosure of 'records of complaints to, or investigations conducted by, or records of intelligence information or security procedures of' any state or local police agency, or investigatory or security files it compiles. As in most states, this is discretionary and case-by-case rather than a blanket bar; agencies commonly release the basic 'blotter' facts of an arrest while withholding narrative investigative detail during an active case.

For a large-city exemplar, the Los Angeles Police Department accepts CPRA requests through its Discovery Section, Records and Identification Division. Confirm LAPD's current fee schedule and any victim-specific fee waivers directly with that office, since specific figures circulating for LAPD were not independently confirmed against the department's own page during this research pass.

California Police Bodycam Footage

California's bodycam access framework works through two statutes together, not one.

What must be released, Penal Code 832.7: As amended by SB 1421 (2018) and subsequent legislation, peace-officer personnel records are confidential by default, but specific categories 'shall not be confidential and shall be made available for public inspection' under the CPRA. Those categories, confirmed directly against the statute's text, include a record relating to an incident involving the discharge of a firearm at a person by an officer, a use of force resulting in death or great bodily injury, a sustained finding of unreasonable or excessive force, and sustained findings of sexual assault, dishonesty directly relating to a criminal investigation, biased conduct, or an unlawful arrest or search. Records that must be released include investigative reports and 'photographic, audio, and video evidence.'

When it must be released, AB 748: Confirmed directly on the California Legislature's own bill-text page, the base disclosure window for critical-incident video and audio is 45 calendar days after the agency knew or reasonably should have known of the incident. An agency can extend that window if disclosure would 'substantially interfere with the investigation,' reassessing and documenting the justification roughly every 30 days, with continued withholding capped at one year from the incident. Beyond one year, the agency must show by clear and convincing evidence that disclosure would interfere with the investigation to continue withholding.

An agency may redact a released record only for specific reasons, such as removing personal identifying information, protecting a whistleblower's or witness's anonymity, or addressing a genuine safety risk to an officer, not as a general discretionary edit. See California Police Bodycam Laws and our guide to requesting body camera footage for the fuller release-timing mechanics.

Corrections and Practical Notes

No California-specific statutory process for correcting a factual error on a crash report was found; contact the investigating agency (CHP or the local department) directly.

A request for a copy of a California accident report 'shall be accompanied by payment of a fee,' per Vehicle Code 20012, which caps that fee at the agency's actual cost of providing the copy, a useful figure to know if a fee schedule looks inflated.

For the aftermath of a crash beyond the report itself, see California Car Accident Laws. For the broader public-records framework, see California Public Records Laws and California Court Records. For the general process of filing or reading a report, see How to File a Police Report and How to Read a Police Report.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about how to obtain a police crash report, incident report, or body camera footage in California as verified on 2026-08-11. It does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Readers with a specific records dispute, or who need advice about a specific incident, should consult a lawyer licensed in California.

Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.