How a New York Warrant Search Works

There are a lot of things that a lot of people don’t know about warrants, and that’s perfectly fine. The United States criminal justice system is complicated and has a lot of ins and outs. On top of that, doing a New York warrant search is complicated in its own right.

In fact, warrant searches have their very own long and complicated history. It can be very easy to be more than a little confused both about how why work and why you’re able to look into people’s warrants in the first place. 

We were just as curious as you about how warrants work, how to do warrant searches, and why warrant searches are a thing. That’s why we hit the internet and looked even in the most distant nooks and crannies so that we could bring you the answers that you need the most. 

Throughout the course of our research, we were able to unveil all sorts of information on this topic and we’re here today to share that information with you. So, let’s take a look and find out once and for all the answer to all of these questions so you don’t have to wonder anymore. 

What Exactly is a Warrant?

Let’s begin with the fundamentals of the subject. What exactly is a warrant? Lots of people know exactly what they are but there are also a lot of people that don’t fully understand the concept, so this seems like a good jumping-off point for the rest of our article. 

Warrants are orders that are issued that allow for law enforcement officers to violate people’s 4th amendment rights. In case you didn’t know, the 4th amendment protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure of themselves and their belongings. 

While every state is required to have specific kinds of warrants in place, what is required to appear on a warrant can vary from state to state. In the state of New York, every warrant must have the following:

• Name of the suspect.
• Description of the suspect. 
• If the name isn’t available then the only thing that will appear is the description.
• Crime or crimes the suspect is believed is have committed.
• County where the crimes were committed. 
• If a warrant is being issued the question isn’t if a crime was committed but who committed the crime.
• Date the crime was committed.
• County where the crime was committed
• Signature of the authorizing party.
• This can either be a judge or magistrate. In some cases, it can also be a mayor but generally, this isn’t the case.
• Name of the office of the authorizing party. 
• Counties where the warrant is executable.
• Date the warrant was issued.

Without that information, a warrant can be considered invalid and as such can be thrown out of a courtroom. Judges have to be really careful about the details they put on a warrant if they hope to avoid their warrants being thrown out, and many judges and magistrates have someone double-check warrants before they’re sent out. 

Why do Warrant Searches Exist?

Now that we’ve covered what warrants are, it might be important to many of our readers to cover why you can just search for them on the internet. Many people might have more than a little confusion about this aspect of the warrant search process.

It might not make sense to a lot of people. If law enforcement uses warrants to track who has been authorized to be searched or arrested, why would they want to provide this information to the public at large to begin with? 

After all, if you have access to warrant information, criminals do too. So what is the point of making this available to people? Isn’t it a public safety issue? It only makes sense that if a criminal sees that they have a warrant they’ll simply flee. 

Well, firstly, it’s actually not all that common for people to flee when they see that they have a warrant. A lot of people will just turn themselves in. On the other side of the spectrum, criminals that know that the police will shortly be after them don’t need to wait around for a warrant to be issued.

In fact, most people that run from the law are well aware that they’re going to have a warrant issued before the police even get to the scene of the crime. It’s incredibly rare for someone to wait around to find out if they have a warrant before they begin to flee.

Now, that’s not the only reason this information is available. If it was then every single county would make it easy to find instead of some counties requiring you to email them to find out if you specifically have a warrant out for your arrest. 

The reason why this information is available is because of an array of government transparency laws that have been passed over the last half a century. These laws vary a lot in scope and can even vary on a state-to-state basis. 

Florida, for example, is one of the most transparent states. New York ranks slightly lower than Florida as far as this kind of thing goes. Florida’s transparency is actually why you see so many crazy news stories about Florida man doing this, that, or the other. 

Warrants are by and large considered to be public information. That’s why it’s so easy to get the information if you know how to look for it. There isn’t a single county in the United States that makes it impossible for you to get warrant information, at least for yourself. 

Just go into this search aware that your county might make it hard to find other people’s warrant information, but in the next section, we’re going to cover how to find warrant information from any county with ease so you’ll have a good way to work around that. 

Finding New York Warrants

In the state of New York, much like in many other states, there are a few ways that you can go about getting warrants. Each method is best suited for different needs, but there is a method that is a clear loser for efficiency. 

The worst method to use is checking databases that are provided by law enforcement. It might seem like a good idea to do it this way, but unless you’re really lucky you’re probably not going to get the information that you’re looking for. 

Lucky people will be able to find all of the warrant information for the person in question in the county they’re searching in. That’s great. That being said, there are a lot of issues that can pop up. For example:

• No information available.
• Many counties don’t provide this kind of database and have you email them to see if you have a warrant.
• Outdated or flat-out incorrect information.
• These kinds of databases can be expensive to keep up to date, and that can be money that a county doesn’t have.
• No linked databases
• None of the counties link their databases, meaning that you would need to check each county individually if you wanted to be super thorough. That would mean looking through 57 databases.

This method can work out well if you’re lucky enough to only need to check in a county or two and those counties just so happen to provide this kind of information right on their website. That being said, if you’re not so lucky you might need another method to get the information that you need.

We would recommend using a personal background check service or warrant search service. Both of these kinds of services are incredibly good for finding this kind of information both quickly and accurately. If you need to find warrant information and don’t have a lot of time, this is the way to go.

Using these services is usually pretty easy. Just a few quick steps:

• Get onto the website of your choosing.
• Type in the required information into the corresponding fields.
• Typically this is just the first and last name of the person in question as well as the state that they currently live in.
• Hit enter.
• Look over the search results.

These services pull information from all over the country and provide you with the search results instantly, making your search a lot easier and faster than it would be if you used the resources provided by law enforcement. You could even do this search with your morning coffee and get the information you need before you’re done drinking it. 

Learn More About the Criminal Justice System

There’s a lot to know about the criminal justice system in the United States. In fact, there are people that have dedicated their lives to studying it. You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand how the criminal justice system works here, and you certainly don’t need to be a lawyer to find warrant information. 

All you really need is a bit of time and the right method to do so. You can get the warrant information that you’re looking for in less than five minutes, which can be a lifesaver depending on how much you need the information.