Cal/OSHA Enforcement in the Inland Empire
Inspectors opened 3,891 inspections in the Inland Empire — Riverside and San Bernardino counties — from 2020 through 2025 and issued 5,916 citations on them. Warehousing is the region's most cited industry, at 2.9x its statewide share of citations, and 42% of the region's inspections began with an accident, against 31% statewide.
Cal/OSHA publishes no regional enforcement statistics. This page is the Inland Empire cut — Riverside and San Bernardino counties — computed from the federal enforcement data: the 3,891 inspections opened at Inland Empire addresses from January 2020 through December 2025, and the 5,916 citations issued on them, carrying $13.5 million in penalties as they currently stand.
The region’s enforcement volume is unremarkable per worker — about 40 annual inspections per 100,000 covered workers (Riverside 38, San Bernardino 42) — the state overall runs about the same. What is distinct is the mix: which industries the citations land on, and what starts the inspections. We publish the same cut for Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose, and a county-by-county breakdown for the whole state.
What Cal/OSHA cites in the Inland Empire
Citations counted per violation line item, grouped to the base section. Average penalty is the penalty as it stands now, after any appeals and settlements, averaged across the row’s citations — as retrieved 2026-08-30; these figures may change as cases settle.
| # | Standard | What it covers | Citations | Avg penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | §3203 | Injury and Illness Prevention Program | 788 | $941 |
| 2 | §3395 | Heat Illness Prevention in Outdoor Places of Employment | 368 | $1,110 |
| 3 | §342 | Reporting Work-Connected Fatalities and Serious Injuries | 302 | $3,988 |
| 4 | §3314 | Control of Hazardous Energy (cleaning and servicing machinery) | 248 | $5,245 |
| 5 | §6151 | Portable Fire Extinguishers | 196 | $195 |
| 6 | §3650 | Industrial Trucks (forklifts) | 168 | $3,056 |
| 7 | §5194 | Hazard Communication | 156 | $352 |
| 8 | §1509 | IIPP (Construction Safety Orders) | 143 | $794 |
| 9 | §5162 | Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment | 116 | $1,702 |
| 10 | §461 | Permits to Operate (air tanks) | 110 | $191 |
| All other standards | 3,321 | |||
| Total | 5,916 | $2,283 |
The §3203 IIPP leads as it does everywhere. Two rows say something about the region. §342 at #3 is the duty to report a serious injury or death to Cal/OSHA — a standard that can only be cited after something happened, sitting unusually high here, which matches the accident-heavy trigger mix below. And §3650, forklifts, at #6 with 168 citations averaging $3,056 is the warehouse floor showing through: statewide, the forklift rules cluster in trucking and warehousing.
Free IIPP template. The §3203 program that leads this table — one section for each of the eight elements listed in §3203(a), plus the inspection and training record forms §3203(b) requires. PDF, no account. Request the template →
Warehousing is the Inland Empire’s most cited industry
The distinctly Inland Empire finding: warehousing and storage (NAICS 4931) drew 365 citations at Inland Empire addresses from 2020 through 2025 — the most of any industry group in the region, and 6.2% of its citations against a 2.1% share statewide, 2.9x the state’s concentration. Trucking adds to the same freight economy: general freight trucking contributed 58 citations and couriers 27.
The rest of the region’s citation mix is its geography talking. Construction leads the sector totals (827 citations, 14%). Traveler accommodation — hotels and resorts — drew 290 citations, wood-product manufacturing 266, auto repair 250, and nonmetallic mineral mining — the region’s quarries — 215. What happens inside the warehouses when things go wrong is its own analysis: our investigation-files piece found the forklift injures and the moving truck kills.
Inspections here start with accidents
Share of the 3,891 Inland Empire inspections opened 2020–2025, by trigger, against the statewide mix:
| Trigger | Inland Empire | Statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Accident investigation | 42% | 31% |
| Planned (programmed) | 26% | 21% |
| Complaint | 16% | 24% |
| Fatality/catastrophe | 7% | 5% |
| Referral | 2% | 8% |
| Related and follow-up | 6% | 11% |
42% of the region’s inspections began as accident investigations, against 31% statewide — and another 7% followed a fatality or catastrophe. Complaints, the second channel statewide, run a third lower here (16% against 24%), and referrals are nearly absent at 2%. Enforcement in the Inland Empire mostly arrives after something has already happened — the reverse of the referral-driven pattern in the far-northern counties, and a sharper version of the event-driven mix statewide.
Methodology
CompliantCA computed this analysis from the U.S. Department of Labor enforcement dataset (the OSHA Information System), which includes Cal/OSHA because California operates an OSHA-approved State Plan; retrieved 2026-08-30. Scope: inspections opened January 2020 through December 2025 at sites in Riverside or San Bernardino County, and citation line items issued in the same window on those inspections, excluding citation records deleted in the source data.
The Inland Empire is defined here as Riverside County plus San Bernardino County. Each inspection is assigned to a county by its five-digit site zip via the Census Bureau’s 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file, assigning each zip to the county holding the largest share of its land area, with the site city as fallback — the same method as our county breakdown. Federal OSHA’s own inspections at Inland Empire addresses — 269 of the 3,891, largely on land under federal jurisdiction — are included, matching our city pages. Citations are grouped to the base section, so §3203(a) and §3203(a)(4) count together; industry groupings use the NAICS code on the inspection record; trigger shares use the inspection-type code on the inspection record, with the statewide column computed from all California inspections the same way. Per-worker rates divide the six-year inspection count by six and by each county’s average covered employment 2020–2025 from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, times 100,000; 2025 employment is preliminary. Penalty figures are the penalty as it stands now, after any appeals and settlements (the dataset’s “current penalty”), and change as cases settle. Cal/OSHA’s own statewide summaries are at DIR’s citation statistics pages.
A citation count says what inspectors cited, not what any employer must do — the standards themselves say that.
Frequently asked questions
How many Cal/OSHA inspections happen in the Inland Empire?
3,891 inspections were opened at Riverside and San Bernardino county addresses from 2020 through 2025, per federal enforcement data — 1,815 in Riverside County and 2,076 in San Bernardino County. Per worker, that is about 40 annual inspections per 100,000 covered workers — essentially California's own overall rate.
What does Cal/OSHA cite most in the Inland Empire?
§3203, the Injury and Illness Prevention Program, leads with 788 of the region's 5,916 citations issued 2020 through 2025. §3395 heat illness prevention is second at 368, and §342 — the duty to report serious injuries and fatalities — is third at 302.
What industry gets cited most in the Inland Empire?
Warehousing and storage (NAICS 4931), with 365 citations at Inland Empire addresses from 2020 through 2025 — 6.2% of the region's citations, against a 2.1% statewide share. No other California region concentrates warehouse enforcement the way the Inland Empire does.
What triggers Cal/OSHA inspections in the Inland Empire?
Accidents, more than anywhere in the state's mix: 42% of the region's inspections opened 2020 through 2025 were accident investigations, against 31% statewide, and another 7% followed a fatality or catastrophe. Complaints ran at 16% against 24% statewide, and referrals at 2% against 8%.