Nearly every patient who walks in asks the same two things about their report: where to get it, and how long it takes. The answer starts with which agency wrote it — Oakland Police (OPD) for a crash on a city street, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) for one on a freeway. The short answer is below, then the detail for each.
Sources: City of Oakland, Vehicle Collision Reports; CHP, Online Crash Report System and Oakland Area office. All read October 6, 2026. Fees and steps can change; check the agency's page before you go.
Related: Oakland traffic collision data: where crashes concentrate
This is the one that trips everyone up. People spend weeks chasing the Oakland Police Department for a report that the California Highway Patrol wrote, or the reverse, and nobody tells them until they've already lost the time.
If your collision happened on a city street — Broadway, International, MacArthur, Telegraph, Grand, anywhere on the grid — Oakland Police handled it. OPD sells traffic collision reports three ways (City of Oakland, Vehicle Collision Reports, read October 6, 2026):
Bring or send the report number, or the date, location and involved party names. A third party (someone other than an involved party) must include a signed authorization from the involved party. Many of those streets are on the City's High Injury Network; see Oakland's published crash data.
If it happened on I-880, I-580, I-980 or Highway 24 — including the MacArthur Maze and the on- and off-ramps — that is CHP jurisdiction, not Oakland Police. Request the CHP report through the CHP Online Crash Report System, which asks you to register. The CHP Oakland Area office is at 3601 Telegraph Avenue, open weekdays 8 a.m.–5 p.m. per its page (both read October 6, 2026). If the crash was in or near Hayward, see how to get a Hayward Police or CHP report.
If you're not sure which you were on, the report number the officer handed you usually identifies the agency, and so does the uniform in your memory: CHP wear tan.
No report number? The date, time and location are usually enough to find it. Don't let a missing number stop you from asking.
If the crash was outside Oakland, the city where it happened usually took the report; on a freeway it was the CHP. This table puts each agency’s own published terms side by side. Waits are in each agency’s words. Where an agency’s pages don’t state something, it says “Not published.” Where two of an agency’s own pages disagree, both figures are shown.
| Agency | Cost | How to order | Typical wait, as the agency states it | Office | Source (read October 23, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakland Police (OPD) | $30.00 online, including a $5.00 convenience fee; $25.00 in person or by mail | Online through BuyCrash; in person or by mail at the Eastmont Substation. Fatal-crash reports in person or by mail only | “typically available within 60-90 days from the collision date” | Eastmont Substation, Traffic Investigations Unit, 2651 73rd Ave., Oakland, CA 94605 | City of Oakland |
| Hayward Police | $22.00 on the city’s police-reports page (“as outlined in the Master Fee Schedule”); its traffic-accident page says $12 | Request form, by mail or in person at the Front Counter; reports are picked up in person | “Most requests will be filled within 10 working days.” | Front Counter, 300 W. Winton Ave., Hayward, CA 94544 | police reports; traffic accident reports |
| San Leandro Police | $11 on the city’s fee schedule; $10 on its Reports page | A public records request through the city’s online portal | Not published | Records Unit, 999 E. 14th St., San Leandro, CA 94577 | Reports; Fee Schedule |
| Alameda Police | $14.00 processing fee online; in-person fee not published | Online through the city’s collision report service (driver or listed party only), or a records request at the Records Window | Online: “eligible for viewing 7-10 business days after the incident occurred” | Records Window, 1555 Oak St., Alameda | City of Alameda |
| Berkeley Police | $10 | NextRequest or Records Online, in person, or by mail | Not published | Police Records Bureau, 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 94704 | City of Berkeley |
| Emeryville Police | Not published | Request form at the Police Services counter; the report is picked up or mailed (“Reports are not emailed.”) | “ten days after the formal request has been made and all supporting documentation has been received” | 2449 Powell St., Emeryville, CA 94608 | City of Emeryville |
| California Highway Patrol (CHP) | $10 for 1 to 25 pages, $10 more for each further 25 pages (CHP FAQ); the request page says to ask the Area office for the exact amount | Online through the Crash Portal (registration required), or form CHP 190 in person or by mail; by mail, check or money order only | Not published | CHP Oakland Area, 3601 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA 94609 | request a crash report; FAQ; Oakland Area |
Each agency’s page was read on October 23, 2026. Fees and steps change; check the agency’s page before you go or pay.
California collision reports are not open public records the way an incident log is. Under Vehicle Code section 20012, release is limited to people with a proper interest in the report.
| Drivers and parties involved | Yes |
|---|---|
| Their attorney or representative | Yes |
| Their insurance company | Yes |
| Parent or guardian of a minor involved | Yes |
| A curious neighbor, an employer, the press | No |
You will need to show identification and your relationship to the collision. If you're requesting on behalf of someone else, expect to document your authority to do it.
How long it takes. The report isn't ready when you leave the scene. OPD says its traffic collision reports are typically available within 60–90 days from the collision date (City of Oakland, read October 6, 2026). You don't need the report to be examined.
Plenty of Oakland collisions never get an officer. Minor damage, nobody visibly hurt, both drivers exchange information and leave. Then three days later the neck seizes up and there's no record anything happened.
Under California Vehicle Code § 20008(a), if anyone was injured or killed, the driver must make a written report of the accident to the CHP or, if it happened in a city, to the CHP or the city police department, within 24 hours after the accident. The statute applies whether or not an officer came to the scene.
Source: California Vehicle Code § 20008(a).
California requires form SR-1 filed with the DMV within 10 days of any collision involving injury, death, or more than $1,000 in property damage — whether or not police came. It is not the police report and it is not your insurance claim: the DMV says it is required in addition to any other report made to the police, CHP, or your insurance company. File through the DMV Virtual Office at dmv.ca.gov. The DMV’s own wording, and where to find the form: the SR-1 report explained.
No plate, no description, no witnesses — report it anyway and get a report number. Your own uninsured motorist coverage generally depends on there being a documented report, and without one you may have no route to it at all. This matters most for people hit while walking or cycling, who are left at the scene far more often.
Reports are written quickly, at night, in traffic, by someone managing a scene. Mistakes happen. Check:
Factual errors — wrong vehicle, wrong direction, misspelled name — can often be corrected by contacting the reporting agency and asking about a supplemental report. An officer's opinion about who caused it is a different matter and much harder to move. That's a question for an attorney, not for us.
About that injury notation. Many people are marked as uninjured at the scene because they honestly felt fine; some people don't notice pain right away. That notation is a snapshot of one moment, not a medical finding, and it does not override an examination two days later when the cervical spine has stiffened.
Get examined as soon as you can. An early, dated exam starts your record from the beginning.
If Oakland Police took it, buy a copy online through BuyCrash ($30.00 including a $5.00 convenience fee, per OPD) or in person or by mail at the OPD Eastmont Substation, 2651 73rd Avenue ($25.00). You need the report number, or the date, location and names of the people involved. OPD says reports are typically available within 60–90 days. If the CHP took it, use the CHP Online Crash Report System.
You can buy an OPD collision report online through BuyCrash by searching with the report number, or a name and the date, or a name and the street. Collision reports are released only to people with a proper interest under Vehicle Code section 20012, and there is no open database you can browse.
You don't need theirs. As a party to the collision you can request it yourself using the date, time and location.
No. Nothing about your medical care waits on a document from the police. Come get examined and chase the paperwork in parallel.
No. You can request your own. If you do want counsel, the Alameda County Bar Association runs a State Bar–certified referral service. We don't recommend a specific firm and take no fee from any of them.
This page is general information about a public process. It is not legal advice, and it is not medical advice. Rules and portals change — verify current requirements with the agency before relying on anything here.
Same-day slots for new accident patients, in Downtown Oakland at 8th and Broadway. Call to schedule. You see one of our two doctors yourself: Dr. Ben Glass in English or Spanish, Dr. Irina Velichko in English or Russian. We verify your coverage first and tell you in writing what you'll owe.
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