Types of Warrant Records

Warrants or body attachments are a means that courts, police and law enforcement agencies have to detain a person for a variety of reasons. Although each jurisdiction may call it something different, these warrants generally serve the same purpose. There are typically three forms of issued warrants, namely arrest warrants, bench warrants and search warrants. 

Arrest Warrants

Arrest warrants are just that - warrants for someone’s arrest. If a hearing or court appearance has been scheduled and you have been ordered to appear to answer charges or to give testimony and you fail to do so, the judge can order that an arrest warrant be entered against you. It will be transferred to an appropriate law enforcement agency for execution.

Another reason why a warrant may be issued is if a police or law enforcement agency has enough evidence to believe that a crime has been committed.They will petition a court to issue an arrest warrant and the police agency will execute it. Police will act upon it very quickly so that the crime can be solved and the appropriate persons brought to justice.

Bench Warrant

Bench warrants are a second type of warrant for failure to appear for a scheduled court appearance. They will also be issued should someone fail to pay an outstanding fine or fails to complete ordered community service. 

Search Warrants

Police agencies may also request a court to issue a search warrant which is a court order allowing them to search a person’s personal property. Search warrants do not necessarily equate to arrest records; however, if evidence is found to link a person to a crime, arrest warrants may be issued and executed.

Creation of Warrant and Arrest Records

It is in everyone’s best interest to have accurate and up-to-date information regarding arrest and warrant records. Warrant information that is only located in one place poses great risk if someone is considered a risk and no one has information available as to his whereabouts. Therefore, courts, governmental agencies and law enforcement agencies have gone to great lengths and expense to create databases that are linked such that information can be shared from one reporting authority to another. When someone has been arrested, convicted, imprisoned and/or released, this information is entered into a database that gets sent out other databases. This also ensures that mistakes are not made such that someone is not unfairly charged or arrested and detained.

Maintenance of Warrant Records

Warrant records are maintained by courts, police agencies and public online databases. In some instances, court and police agencies databases are linked such that a search in either will produce similar results. However, in all likelihood, one will be more up-to-date than the other and so a thorough search would entail a search of each database separately.

A person’s arrest record is information that everyone feels that they are entitled to. It can be obtained for a  nominal fee or in some instances, can be free. Searches can be made among county and state records, as well as searching federal arrest records. Such searches will reveal whether or not any arrests were made as a result of any moving violations. 

Warrant records are not easy to find but the time and effort involved in the warrants record search, although possibly exhausting, will reveal a lot of information about a person, the crimes that he may have committed, whether or not he has adhered to required court appearances, fines that are due and/or paid as well as any other mandates from a court. 

Other Warrant Record Information:

Felony Warrant

Outstanding Warrants