Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

What do you mean "it turned into a felony"? If you took a guilty plea, you're a felon, and forget about working in law enforcement.

Some felony convictions can be reduced to misdemeanors, but a conviction doesn't "come off your record" like a traffic conviction and you will always have to disclose it when applying for a law enforcement job.

Even if you managed to get hired by a law enforcement agency, you couldn't do the job effectively with a theft conviction on your record. Every time you testified in a case, the defense would use it to call your honesty into question: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Officer Smith is a convicted thief. How can you convict my client based on the testimony of a thief?"

The general rules and guidelines are: Records are forever. However, many felony and misdemeanor convictions [not infractions] can sometimes be 'expunged' from criminal records by proper application and Petition to the court, but only if there was no prison time served or even sentenced and reduced to probation, if it was not for certain sex and Domestic Violence crimes, if all terms of sentencing and probation [and at least one year of probation] are completed and finished, and if there are no new charges pending. If successful, the conviction would be retroactively reduced to a misdemeanor and then withdrawn and the charges dismissed. That does not 'remove' the conviction, but merely changes the record to show 'conviction reversed and dismissed by expungement'. When applying for a job in the private sector, you generally do not have to disclose a conviction if it was expunged. However, the conviction is still a 'prior' or 'strike' for purposes of repeat offense, and must be disclosed on any application for government and professional employment and licensing, bonding, security clearance, etc. The licensing agency and employer then can decide whether you are barred from licensing and employment because of your conviction. A felony will bar you for life from possessing a firearm, thus you can't join military or law enforcement. If you�re serious about doing this, and you think you qualify, feel free to contact me for the legal help you'll need.