If you think that you have a warrant out for your arrest, the first step that you can take is to go online and search for your local state, county or city website that has information regarding outstanding warrants. Typically, federal government websites will end with .gov and city or county websites will end with org.
Sites To Avoid
In some cases, individuals who are not associated with a city or county will own a website with the .com,.net or .org TLD. You should stay cautious of these sites. If they don’t look official or ask you to pay some type of subscription, it’s best to avoid them. You do not have to pay any type of money to discover if you have a warrant.
Conducting A Warrant Search
Once you locate an official website that’s related to the county, city or state where you are located, check the website to see if they have a search function that allows you to type in your full name. In some cases, you may also be asked to enter the city or county as well. This should bring up a list of the individuals who currently have a warrant out for their arrest. See if you are listed in the search results.
Options On Websites
Unfortunately, not every state, city or county website will have a functional search option where you can see if you have a warrant out. Some of these city and county governments have tight budgets and small populations. Typically, they do not have the funds to invest in having a warrant search option put on their website. The best way to check these websites is to locate the contact information and call them. Often, you will be able to talk to someone in the County Clerk’s office who can assist you with your search.
Visiting In Person
One of the best ways to check to see if you have any outstanding warrants is to have a friend or relative visit your local police department and make an inquiry. While this may seem like a scary situation, the quicker you deal with the situation, the faster it will be resolved.
If you don’t have a warrant out for your arrest, you can go on with your daily life. However, if you do find out that that there is currently a warrant out against you, you can now make preparations for dealing with the situation. When you do decide to visit the authorities, you may be placed into custody at that time or given a day when you will be required to show up to court. If you are given a court date, it’s important that you make an appearance. Otherwise, you will tack on another warrant based on your failure to appear.
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!