How Hard is it to Do a Warrant Search in Texas?

There are a lot of people all over the United States who try to do warrant searches every single day. Whether they’re looking to do a Texas warrant search or a warrant search in the state of Florida, people are looking to get this information every day.

The tricky part, it would seem, is actually knowing where to find this kind of information. That’s the part that the vast majority of people struggle with, and they may or may not have to. Are these searches actually as difficult as people believe they are?

That’s the question that we’re seeking to answer today so that everyone reading this will know how they can go about getting this kind of information without having to break their backs over it. Millions of people give up on this search every year because of the perceived difficulty, but it might not have to be that way.

The internet is a vast place, in a lot of cases, all it takes to get the information that you need is a bit of know-how so you can be on your way to getting the things you need. Are warrant searches one of these things?

We’ll certainly find out. We’re also going to be covering what warrants are because we are aware that not everyone fully understands this legal concept, and knowing what you’re looking at can make your whole search go that much more smoothly in general. 

There’s a lot to know about warrants and searching for warrants, more than we’ll have time to get into today. So, we’re going to do our best to summarize only the most important details so you can have a better understanding of this subject and maybe even a better time finding warrants when you need to. 

What is a Warrant?

The first thing that we absolutely have to understand is what exactly warrants are. Without this information, it’s incredibly difficult to be sure that you’re even looking for what you actually want. There are a lot of words that are used in law, and a lot of different kinds of records that are kept. 

Most records are somewhat interconnected, which makes things a little more complicated. For example, in most cases, nothing is added to someone’s criminal record without a warrant being issued first and nothing is ever added to someone’s court records.

So, what exactly is a warrant? The strictest legal definition is that it’s a legal order that is issued by a judge or magistrate for the search or seizure of a person or their property. Just in case it wasn’t clear enough, an arrest is a seizure of a person.

There have to be specific criteria met for a warrant to be issued, and each warrant needs to contain very specific information or it runs the risk of being thrown out of court entirely. Many judges and magistrates have someone double-check things before they’re sent out to be sure that there are no clerical errors. 

But what conditions must be met in order for a warrant to be issued? There are several, let’s take a look at them before we move on. There must be:

• Hard evidence.
  • This can include something like DNA evidence, mail left at the scene of the crime, or other personal items that link the suspect to the scene of the crime.
• Eye witness testimony.
  • If an eyewitness is able to say “yes, I know for sure that Jack Stauber was the person that committed that crime” a judge or magistrate is able to issue a warrant.
• Video/Audio evidence.
  • If there is a video of someone committing a crime and someone is able to I.D. them, that’s enough to have a warrant out for their arrest. It’s also enough if there’s a sound clip found that says something like “I am Jane Jackson and I am robbing this bank.” but that kind of evidence is a little shady at best. 

Before we move on to the next section, we want to be super clear about one thing. Just because someone has a warrant out for their arrest, that doesn’t mean that they actually committed the crime. Just that they’re suspected. 

What Needs to be on a Warrant for it to be Valid?

Let’s take a look at what kind of information needs to be on a warrant. There is a decently long list, and we’ll provide an indicator of what you’ll be able to find in a warrant search:

• Name of the suspect.
  • Available through search.
• A reasonable physical description of the suspect. (can replace name if the name isn’t available.
  • Available through search.
• Crimes that were committed.
  • Available through search.
• County where crimes were committed.
  • Available through search.
• Signature of the judge or magistrate.
  • Usually unavailable through search.
• Date the warrant was issued.
  • Available through search.
• County where the warrant was issued.
  • Available through search.
• The name of the office where the warrant was issued.
  • Usually unavailable through search.
• Bail that was set, if any was set.
  • Available through search.

Judges and magistrates are always very careful to make sure that all of this information is included on warrants because without it, it would be incredibly difficult to make the case in court. Even a typo is enough to get the whole case thrown out, which makes things pretty tricky. 

Getting a case thrown out in the best-case scenario means that they’ll have to start the case back over from scratch. In the worst case, it gives the suspect a chance to flee the state or even country before a proper warrant can be drafted and sent out to law enforcement. 

Sometimes lawyers can even use some tricky methods to even make sure that their client can’t be charged for the crime again. Needless to say, it can get pretty messy no matter how it’s approached once the case has already been thrown out once because of an inaccurate warrant. 

How to Find A Warrant

Here we are. We’ve explained warrants to the best of our ability, and now we have to explain how someone might go about finding warrant information if they need it. This task doesn’t have to be hard, but it can be depending on how you go about it. 

The first and most common way to do this is by trying to look through police records on their website. This is hit or miss. Sometimes you can get a lot of information, sometimes you can get next to nothing this way. It depends on the country that you live in. 

If you do live in a county that provides this kind of information on their website, that’s the end of your search. Congratulations, you’ve got the information that you started this quest to find and it was easy as could be without having to take any other steps. 

If not, you could try calling your local sheriff’s department and asking. This can also net you some pretty mixed results, but if you’re deadset on using the resources provided by law enforcement this can work just fine in a lot of cases. Maybe not all the time, but a lot of the time. 

Now, keep in mind that some counties just flat out don’t provide this information at all. That means that even if you call in and ask really nicely, there won’t be anything that they can do for you. Unfortunate, but not your last hope.

You could try contacting a bail bondsman. Bailbonds companies often have access to information that the general public doesn’t have access to, so they might have the ability to give you the information that you’re looking for without much hassle. Just make sure you ask nicely, and keep in mind that they might not have it. 

When all else fails, you can try a warrant search service or a personal background check service. Both of these services are specifically designed to help people find exactly this kind of information quickly, even when it’s been hard to find the information using other methods. 

These services can often provide you with results instantly, making them very convenient for these kinds of searches. On top of that, they’re usually able to pull information from all over the country. That makes them incredibly useful no matter how you cut it, and the speed at which they provide results is nothing to sneeze at.

Get The Information You Need

There is a lot of information to be found on the internet, and knowing how to find it can mean the difference between getting said information and, well, not. Fortunately, knowing how to find something is a pretty low bar for entry. 

Whether this is your first time looking into warrants or your millionth, you deserve to know what options you have available for you so you can always get the information that you need most right when you need it, without having to waste a bunch of time and effort on it.