police records

Finding the Descriptions of Crimes for Different Penal Code Sections

Police records usually refer to penal code sections in describing crimes they are investigating.

How can you find out what crimes the various sections of the state penal code stand for? For example, section 187 of the penal code is for homicides.

The Berkeley Police Department has a list of commonly used penal code sections and what crimes they refer to. That's at:

Berkeley Police Department Crime Classification

For complete listings, you can search by a penal code section number at the state government's California Law site to find out what crime it relates to.

Go to the California Law website scroll down and check the box next to Penal Code. In the search box type in the number for the penal code section you're interested in (such as 187).

At the search results page, click on the first listing. That should give you the penal code section you're seeking (the other listings are for other sections of the penal code that make reference to the penal code section you searched for).