The word "record" does a lot of work in that question. There are four different records a hold might touch, and the honest answer is different for each.
The short answer: a 5150 is not a criminal record. The advisement an officer must give you says so in terms: "You are not under criminal arrest, but I am taking you for an examination by mental health professionals at" the named facility.¹ What it creates is a medical record, and under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act "all information and records obtained in the course of providing services" to you are confidential.² If — and only if — you were assessed and admitted to a facility as a danger to yourself or others, the facility reports that to the Department of Justice "within 24 hours of the time of admission," you are barred from firearms, other deadly weapons and ammunition for five years after release, and you may ask the superior court once during that period to lift it; the report "shall be confidential," to be used for the court proceedings the section describes and for determining firearms eligibility.³ There is no statute that reports a psychiatric hold to the DMV, and an employer may not make "any medical or psychological inquiry of an employee" except where job related and consistent with business necessity.⁴
Record one: criminal history
A 5150 is a civil detention. The officer, clinician or designated professional takes you into custody "for a period of up to 72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention,"¹ and the statute's mandatory advisement tells you, by name and agency, that it is not an arrest.¹ No charge is filed; no court case is opened; nothing goes to the criminal history the DOJ keeps for arrests and convictions. A background check that pulls criminal records will not find a hold, because there is no criminal record to find.
What may exist is a police incident report, if police were the ones who transported you. That is a law-enforcement document, not a criminal record, and it is not part of a rap sheet.
Record two: the medical record
The hold, the assessment and any treatment are in your medical record at the facility. Welfare and Institutions Code §5328 makes "all information and records obtained in the course of providing services ... to either voluntary or involuntary recipients of services" confidential, releasable only on the exceptions the statute lists — to other treating professionals, to people you designate with the approval of the professional in charge of your care, and in the narrow situations the Act names.² You control it the way you control any medical record: it moves with your written authorisation, and not otherwise. How to get your therapy records → · HIPAA vs. CMIA →
Record three: the DOJ firearms file
This is the one people mean when they fear "the record," and it has a precise trigger. Section 8103(f) applies to a person "taken into custody" under §5150, assessed, and admitted to a facility because they are a danger to self or others.³ A hold that ends at the evaluation, without admission, does not trigger it.
Where it applies:³
- The facility reports to the Department of Justice "within 24 hours of the time of admission," on the DOJ's form, with your identity and the legal grounds.
- You may not own, possess, control, receive or purchase "a firearm, other deadly weapon, or ammunition" for five years after your release from the facility; a second such admission within a year makes the bar lifetime.
- Before or at discharge, the facility must tell you about the prohibition, that any firearms must be relinquished "within 72 hours of discharge," and that you may ask a court for a hearing.
- You may make "a single request for a hearing at any time during the five-year period"; at that hearing "the people shall bear the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the person would not be likely to use a firearm, other deadly weapon, or ammunition in a safe and lawful manner."
- The report "shall be confidential," except for the court proceedings the section describes and for determining firearms eligibility — and the section also allows its use where the person is the subject of a criminal investigation involving firearms.
That is the answer to "who can see it": the firearms-eligibility check, the court in a hearing about the bar, and a criminal investigation involving firearms. It is not a public record, not a criminal record, and not something an employer can pull. Will therapy cost me my guns? →
Record four: the DMV
There is no statute that sends a psychiatric hold to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The physician-reporting law that feeds the DMV requires reports of patients "diagnosed as having a case of a disorder characterized by lapses of consciousness" — epilepsy, certain dementias — and names no mental disorder or hold; it does let a physician who believes in good faith that reporting a patient "will serve the public interest" report a condition outside that definition, which is discretion, not a rule about holds.⁵ The DMV's general power is to refuse a licence to a person with "any physical or mental disability, disease, or disorder which could affect the safe operation of a motor vehicle" absent medical evidence they can drive safely,⁶ and that power is exercised on information it receives, which for a hold, in the ordinary course, it does not.
Who asks, and what you owe them
- An employer. May not make a medical or psychological inquiry of an employee unless it "can show" the inquiry is "job related and consistent with business necessity."⁴ You are not obliged to volunteer a hold, and a medical or psychological inquiry of an applicant is barred by the neighbouring subdivision of the same section except after an offer.⁴ Can my employer make me see a psychologist? →
- A security-clearance form. Different rules — federal, and asked directly. Therapy and security clearances →
- A licensing board, a court, an insurer. Each has its own questions and its own right to ask them; a hold is answered truthfully where asked, and a licence application that asks about hospitalisation is a place to get advice before writing. Therapy on your insurance record →
- A landlord, a school, a friend. No right to ask, no source to ask.
After the hold
If you were admitted and want the firearms bar lifted, the single request for a hearing goes to "the superior court of the county of their residence," and the burden is on the state.³ If you want to know exactly what your record says, ask the facility for it — it is yours to see, subject to the usual clinical-risk exception. And if the hold was the first contact with the system, the more useful record to build now is a plan for the next crisis. Psychiatric advance directives in California → · What happens after the 72 hours →
Q&A
Q: Will a 5150 show up on a background check for a job? A: A criminal background check finds arrests and convictions; a hold is neither.¹ The DOJ firearms report is confidential except for the hearing, the eligibility check and a firearms-related criminal investigation.³
Q: I was held but released the same night. Am I on the firearms list? A: The prohibition applies to a person assessed and admitted as a danger to self or others; a hold that ends without admission is not reported under §8103(f).³
Q: Do I have to tell the DMV? A: No statute requires the facility to report a psychiatric hold to the DMV.⁵ The DMV's own forms ask about conditions that affect safe driving; that question is answered on the condition, not on the hold.⁶
Q: Can I get the firearms bar removed early? A: Yes — one request for a hearing during the five years; there the people must show by a preponderance of the evidence that you would not be likely to use a firearm, other deadly weapon or ammunition safely and lawfully.³
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Sources
- Cal. Welfare & Institutions Code §5150 — custody "for a period of up to 72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention"; the advisement "You are not under criminal arrest, but I am taking you for an examination" — california.public.law.
- Cal. Welfare & Institutions Code §5328 — "All information and records obtained in the course of providing services ... to either voluntary or involuntary recipients of services are confidential," and the listed exceptions — california.public.law.
- Cal. Welfare & Institutions Code §8103(f) — the five-year prohibition on "a firearm, other deadly weapon, or ammunition" running from release, after custody, assessment and admission as a danger to self or others; lifetime after a second admission within a year; the facility's report to the DOJ "within 24 hours of the time of admission"; the discharge notice and 72-hour relinquishment; "a single request for a hearing at any time during the five-year period" from "the superior court of the county of their residence," with the burden on the people; the report "shall be confidential" except for those proceedings, eligibility determinations and firearms-related criminal investigations — california.public.law.
- Cal. Government Code §12940(e) and (f) — the bar on a medical or psychological inquiry of an applicant except after an offer, and on "any medical or psychological inquiry of an employee" except one the employer "can show to be job related and consistent with business necessity" — california.public.law.
- Cal. Health & Safety Code §103900 — physician reporting to the local health officer, for the DMV, of patients "diagnosed as having a case of a disorder characterized by lapses of consciousness"; the good-faith public-interest discretion to report a condition outside the definition; no mention of mental disorders or psychiatric holds — california.public.law.
- Cal. Vehicle Code §12806(c) — the DMV may refuse a licence to a person with "any physical or mental disability, disease, or disorder which could affect the safe operation of a motor vehicle" absent medical evidence of safe driving — california.public.law.
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