It’s a whole lot of trouble getting an Arrest Warrant but you can often avoid it
Have you ever thought about what might happen if the police come to arrest you on a warrant that you didn’t realize existed? Well I can tell you that it will cause you a lot of stress, lost working time, general aggravation and money. Having to go to court is a daunting thought at the best of times, believe me. If you find yourself in front of a judge unexpectedly then it’s 100 times worse.
You might be forgiven for thinking that there’s no way that you could have an arrest warrant. After all, you haven’t done anything wrong have you? Or so you think! It’s actually surprisingly easy to get an arrest warrant. Especially now that law enforcement is using more and more automatic electronic means to catch you in the process of committing an offence.
Detectors and cameras on the highway can not only measure your speed but they can also read your licence plates without any human intervention at all. This can lead to warrants being issued when you don’t pay the automatic fines because they were lost in the mail or whatever.
Identity theft is also on the increase so you don’t even have to commit the crime yourself. Someone else will happily do it for you without your knowledge. This can be an absolute disaster for you if you don’t find out what’s happening early enough. It can literally ruin your life if you’re not careful. Doing regular background checks on yourself is one way of making sure that there isn’t anything funny like this going on.
It doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming to do regular background checks. Here are 3 simple ways of checking for arrest warrants:
1. Asking a police officer might work but please don’t do it
I have to mention this one first because on the face of it it seems like the obvious thing to do. Yes the law enforcement agencies do have the ability to look up your criminal records and see if you have an active arrest warrant. That’s their job and they will do it for free for you.
The problem is that they are likely to arrest you on the spot if they find that you have a warrant. That’s also their job and you’ve just handed them an easy point on their arrest statistics.
This is not a good scenario. You want to find out if you have a warrant so that you can get a lawyer and find out how to handle it in a way that’s best for you. Getting arrested on the spot is the worst thing that could happen.
2. Look up your arrest warrants at your local courthouse
You are unlikely to get arrested by going to the courthouse where your arrest warrant was issued and asking. You might even be able to access the local arrest records online for free. The problem is knowing which courthouse to ask to do a search. Individual court records offices only tend to keep information on warrants that they issue themselves. If your warrants for arrest where issued in another state then you will be out of luck.
3. Make use of online public records databases to find arrest warrants
It doesn’t get any easier than this. Just register with an online public records web site and start your search. You can do your first arrest warrant lookup in less than 10 minutes and it will be even faster than that the next time you check yourself out.
These web sites know how frustrating it can be when you are trying to find information on yourself or anyone else for that matter. So they do all the legwork from you. They have accumulated billions of records from thousands of sources both online and offline. All this information is then offered to you in one easy to use web site.