Information on Missouri outstanding warrants and arrest records is maintained by judicial as well as law enforcement offices working at the state and county levels. Within your area, you are likely to find details on crime history from the department of the county clerk, the court of the magistrate or the police. Arrest warrants are issued by local tribunals when a request is made for these directives by the sheriff’s office.
These court released decrees for arrests can be brought to use to handle felonies, misdemeanors as well as seemingly petty matters like traffic or civic ordinance infractions. In fact, when arrest orders are issued in case of the latter, they often go unnoticed by people against whom they have been released. Unfortunately, this can serve as the doorway into a world of trouble for an accused.
Can a traffic violation warrant get a person in just as much trouble as an order for arrest issued in felonies?
Undoubtedly, active warrants that are released in response to the commissioning of a felonious act are more powerful but a directive for arrest that has been issued against a petty misdemeanor or even a traffic violation can also lead to arrests. The worst is that often your driver’s license will also be suspended if you are being accused of traffic infractions.
Bench warrants that are issued when people neglect to obey a court order and MO arrest warrants that have to do with misdemeanors and trivial offenses will all lead to custodial detention within the county in which the orders were issued. However, outstanding warrants that are connected with felonies have far greater reach as they can be executed in any part of the state or country.
Arrest directives, in general, come with perpetual validity so, once the order is issued, police have the authority to serve it any time; even if it means putting the decree to use years after it was issued. Also, information on criminals who have outstanding warrants from Missouri is shared with other law enforcement agencies which also keep an eye out for these offenders.
Finding details on arrest warrants in Missouri
Most wanted lists posted on the sheriffs’ websites, private agencies that accept requests for warrant searches and the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Criminal Justice Information Service can all be put to use to find information on criminal acts.
Local police and other sheriffs’ departments: The simplest way to find out if a person you know has a warrant out against him is to simply consult with the list of the most wanted criminals of the county you live in and other geographical divisions. However, the first problem with this option is that the suspects included in this list are usually hardened criminals accused of serious felonies.
So, it would be tough to find the name of somebody involved in a petty offense in the most wanted list. The next issue is that you do not get to search the database through names; you have to contend with what the police want to offer. Yet, it is good idea to glance over these web pages before launching a full blown warrant search. Some of the police departments that offer this information online include:
- MSHP: http://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/MostWanted/timothyThomasCoombs.html
- DEA: http://www.justice.gov/dea/fugitives/stl/stl_div_list.shtml
- Johnson County: http://www.jocomosheriff.org/wanted.php
- Jefferson City: http://www.jeffcitycrimestoppers.com/mostwanted.htm
- Callaway County: http://www.callawaysheriff.org/identity.php
- Barry County: http://www.barrycountysheriff.com/disclaimer.php?id=2
- Audrain County: http://www.audrainsheriff.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=98&Itemid=133
Private agencies: Third party sites also offer the facility to look for arrest records and warrants online. One such agency can be approached by filling the form on top of this page. This is both a convenient and an inexpensive option to conduct warrant inquiries. However, the results cannot be used in an official sense.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol: The Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) can be used to conduct name based as well as fingerprint based crime history searches. The former are open to all applicants while you will need to have statutory authority to get complete crime history records which are provided in response to fingerprint inquiries. You will be charged $9 for a personal identifier search and you will have to send the application at https://apps.mshp.dps.mo.gov/MSHPWeb/PatrolDivisions/CRID/documents/SHP-158T.pdf to:
The CJIS Division1510 East Elm St.P.O. Box 9500Jefferson City, MO 65102