Warrant searches are something that most people do at some point or another in their lives. Whether they want to see if they have a warrant out for their own arrest, they want to make sure a loved one hasn’t fallen in with a bad crowd, or they want to vet a potential suitor before a big date. No matter the reason why you want to do a New York warrant search you deserve to know exactly how to find the information that you’re looking for in a timely manner.

Millions of people all over the country find this information every single day and finding it is really as difficult as knowing where to look for it. The internet has made finding any information you could want from a pie recipe to government files child’s play, and there are many laws on the books that only serve to make this task easier. If you want to learn how to find warrants in new york the quickest and easiest way possible, you’re in the right place. Let’s take a look at what warrants are, why they’re issued, and how you can find them in less time than it would take to put on your shoes. 

Explaining What a Warrant Is

Before delving into the how to find warrant information of it all, let’s take a look at exactly what a warrant is so we can be sure that all of our readers are on the same page. The legal system in the United States is incredibly complicated, so it’s entirely understandable if you have a few blind spots here and there. Certainly, even attorneys have a few blind spots within our legal justice system, it’s just that complex in scope.

In any case, a warrant is an order that is issued by a judge or magistrate that allows for the 4th amendment, protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, to be violated. It is issued when a crime is suspected to have been committed. Usually, it’s issued if the suspect has had time to flee the scene before law enforcement was able to get there. These orders allow for law enforcement to take in a suspect even after the fact so they can make sure that the person in question is granted a speedy trial judged by a jury made up by their peers, as they are guaranteed by their rights. 

In the state of New York, warrants can only be executed in the county they were issued and surrounding counties unless the warrant was endorsed by another county. Warrants can be executed at any time on any day, regardless of if it’s a holiday or not. That means that if you have a warrant out for your arrest, it doesn’t matter if the police pull you over at 2:00 PM or 2:00 AM, they’ll be well within their rights to take you into police custody so you can be tried for your crimes. 

People all over the state benefit from it being set up this way, and it makes it a lot harder for criminals to get away with their crimes. Everything in our criminal justice system is designed to process criminals as quickly as possible so they can pay for their crimes. Most of the time, if a crime is severe enough to justify a warrant it will result in jail time, but a warrant can actually be issued for any crime no matter the nature or severity, it’s entirely up to the discretion of the judge in charge of the courts for that county. 

Who can Look at Warrants? 

When you undergo this kind of search, you probably want to know exactly who can see this information and potentially why this information is available. Well, in the shortest terms possible, anyone is able to find warrant information because warrants are considered to be public records. As a citizen of the United States, public records are your right to access so you can access any public record your heart desires if you know how to find it and what the process is. But why are public records available?

Again, the simplest answer is because there are laws that make it so public information is available to the public. These laws were put into place to ensure that the government was transparent for all of the citizens in the United States. It was a big issue before the 1960s because no one was able to access any sort of public records, so many people were extra distrustful of the government. To remedy this, the first government transparency law was passed. After that, many new pieces of information were available to people if they just knew how to gain access to it. 

To this day there are multiple ways to go about getting this information. Some things all you need to do is search around on the internet for a while and you should be able to find everything that you need. Some trickier pieces of information, for example things having to do with ongoing wars, you might need to send in a special request, have it reviewed, and wait and see if it gets approved. In some cases, you can sue the government if they reject your request in order to attempt to force them to disclose the information you’re looking for. 

On the other hand, most information doesn’t require all of that effort. For example, if you’re looking for real estate records, you needn’t look any further than your county’s website in most cases. Business records are also considered public record, assuming that the company in question is publicly traded, and as such you can easily find their information online. Most companies even make this information available on a web address that they host themselves. When it comes to things like warrant information, while it is public record, it can be a little trickier depending on what county you’re looking in. Let’s take a look at how you can go about getting this information yourself. 

How to Find Warrant Information in New York

Acquring information in the age of information is usually not a difficult task. Most anything that you could possibly need is usually no more than a few feet away, depending on where you put your phone when you’re not using it. Search engines even have things in place to help make sure that this information is catalogged and indexed correctly so that anyone can find it easily. It’s kind of incredible to think that the industry involved in making the information on the internet easier to find is a multi-billion dollar one. 

In any case, there are a couple of ways you could go about getting warrant information. The first method requires equal parts know-how and luck. This method is simple and probably the most straightforward method. All you need to do is check on your county’s sheriff’s department’s website. There are a lot of counties that provide this information in an easy to access database right on their website so anyone can access this information with ease. The reason this method requires a little bit of luck is that not every county makes these kinds of databases easy to find. 

In the best case scenario, you’d be able to get all of the warrant information for the person in question in that specific county pretty quickly this way. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Many counties don’t provide this kind of database at all, and that usually results in having to send in an I.D. and name to see if you personally have a warrant. There are also counties that do provide these kinds of databases, but they don’t maintain or update them. That means that you’ll end up with either out-of-date or entirely missing information that would have been useful for your search.

There is a better way, all you need is either a good warrant search service or a personal background check service. Both of these services are great at pulling up all sorts of information that can be difficult to find on your own. Both of these services pull data from all sorts of public record databases all over the country and instantly provide all sorts of information instantly. This method can save you a lot of time, especially if you’re needing to check a large search area because you want to be sure you have all of the information. 

Finding Warrants so You Can Relax a Little

There’s a lot of information that can help you sleep a little better at night. Knowing if someone you care about has a warrant could very well be one of those things. It can also be useful to find out if someone you plan on going on a date with has active warrants for their arrest so you can be sure to avoid them if they’re dangerous. Regardless of your reasons for wanting this information, you deserve to take a breath of fresh air once you know for sure. In many cases, the uncertainty of it all can be more overwhelming than the situation itself, and warrant searches are definitely good for easing some of that uncertainty.