Checking for arrest warrants is often part of employment background checks and checks people do on those who might wind up being closer to them. For example, an executive would check for warrants before hiring an assistant or a parent would check for warrants before hiring a babysitter. If you are unsure if there is a warrant against you, then it is best to check and take care of it before it escalates into something more serious.
Checking On Your Arrest Warrants
The easiest, but riskiest, way to check for warrants against yourself is to politely ask a police officer to check for you. The officer will probably search you and put you in the back of their car while they check you out. If you have warrants, the officer will place you under arrest and take you to the courthouse where you can address your warrants. If you want some time to be able to put together resources to handle your warrants, then this might not be the best approach.
Call The Courthouse
You can call the county courthouse near you and ask if you or someone else you are searching for has any outstanding warrants. If you need time to talk to a criminal attorney before actually addressing your warrants, then this would be the best approach. Calling your courthouse will get you information on local and state arrest warrants under any name you ask. If you are interested in federal warrants or warrants in other states, you will have to contact a federal courthouse or call a courthouse in that state.
One of the problems with getting warrant information over the phone is that many courthouses do not immediately give out that information. As a way of documenting who is asking about warrants, the courthouse might tell you that it needs to mail out the information. In some areas, it can take weeks to get that information.
Getting Information Online
It seems like the fastest and most reliable way to get arrest warrant information is to use an online service. Some websites claim they will give you arrest warrant information for free, but that information is usually incomplete and you have to pay to get a full report.
There is a cottage industry of websites that claim to give arrest warrant information, but are actually just stealing credit card information. You need to do your research before using a website to get arrest warrant information and make sure that the site you are using is reputable.
When you are getting ready to hire someone or take them into your inner circle of confidence, it always helps to determine if they have any arrest warrants outstanding. If you had a parking ticket or some other minor infraction in the past that you don’t remember taking care of, then you will want to check and see if there are any warrants for your arrest. There are several ways to check for warrants, but you will need to decide which method works best for you.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!