There are a lot of diverse traits that different people might possess. Cindy from next door might be really into baking, George from sales might have a passion for retro video games, Sam your bartender might be really good at Jenga, and your cousin Jenna might be a serial shoplifter. Most of the time these little quirks are harmless, but something you might need to do a Texas warrant search just to be sure.
With so many different types of people in the world, it can be hard to know who is sketchy and who is just a normal, honest person. It gets even trickier when you think about the fact that the leather-clad man that is covered in tattoos could be really into gardening while the sweet girl from church could be rolling in insurance fraud money.
It’s just as they say, you really can’t judge a book by its cover. There are too many different types of people with different preferences in the world to be sure what someone is about just by looking at them unless you really have a knack for that kind of thing, and even then people are bound to surprise you.
So, what is a warrant search, when should you do one, and how would you go about doing one? These are the questions that we’re aiming to answer with today’s article.
Table of Contents
What is a Warrant?
It might feel like a safe assumption to say that everyone knows what a warrant is. After all, they’re a core part of our criminal justice system and as such most people have at least heard of a warrant. It feels like a pretty common sense thing.
That being said, there is a lot of misinformation about our criminal justice system out there. For the most part, this misinformation isn’t even spread intentionally, but for entertainment value. That’s right, Holywood is the biggest spreader of misinformation on this subject.
So, let’s just break down the concept of warrants so we can be sure that you understand exactly what it is that we’re talking about. A warrant is an order that allows for the search or seizure of a person or their belongings. There are a few criteria that a warrant must meet for it to be valid, for instance, every warrant must contain:
- A signature from the judge or magistrate.
- The name of the office where the warrant was issued.
- The date the warrant was issued.
- The name of the suspect.
- If no name is available a reasonable description will work in most cases.
- The name of the issuing county.
- All counties where the warrant is executable.
- The laws the suspect is believed to have broken.
Some states require a lot more than this, some require less. The list that we just covered is often considered to be the bare minimum as far as warrants are concerned in any state. Texas is one of the states that is laxer about the rules so they just follow the bare minimum.
Why do Warrants Exist?
We’re all seen those crime dramas. The police have the criminal pulled over, mere seconds away from arresting him. The only issue is that they don’t actually have a reason to pull him in, even though they know that he’s the one that they’re searching for.
The police ask to search his car and he smugly says “do you have a warrant?” and they don’t because they never do. At this point, the police either rush to get a warrant or let the criminal go, even if they know that he’s the person they’re looking for.
Why do we have a system like this? Isn’t it better to apprehend the suspect on the spot, even if there isn’t a warrant out for their arrest? Well, the answer is actually no. At least, that’s the answer that the founding fathers gave when they considered this very same question.
We have some rights that are guaranteed to us by the constitution. The right to bear arms, the right to freedom of speech, the right to not be forced to house soldiers. We also have the right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.
This protection is offered under the 4th amendment, and it is especially important for ensuring that innocent people aren’t being harassed by the police quite as often. This is actually a legal precedent that required this amendment to be added.
Back when the United States was still nothing more than a British colony, the crown was able to issue general warrants. These warrants gave police broad, sweeping power to pretty much do whatever they wanted to if it was in the name of executing the warrant.
So, let’s say a general warrant was put out for revolutionaries and you’re just a poor bartender at a local pub. Many pubs were considered breeding grounds for revolutionaries, so that could get a pretty big target on your back pretty quickly.
Even if your pub was frequented by loyalists, if a policeman thought you could even be tangentially connected to revolutionary groups, the police could take you in indefinitely just on the grounds that you were suspicious.
This was a time before phones so you’d have to hope that word got back to your friends and family, lest they be subjected to a lot of unwarranted worrying about your well-being because you had essentially just disappeared off the face of the earth.
At that point in time, disappearing off the face of the earth almost certainly meant that you had been kidnapped or murdered because those were both rampant issues in the early United States, especially before we become a sovereign nation.
So, yeah, the 4th amendment is very important and it makes sense that we’re only allowed to issue limited warrants rather than broad, sweeping warrants that allow for the police to take anyone into custody for any reason.
When to do a Warrant Search
Now that you know what a warrant is and why we have them, let’s take a look at when it might be a good idea to do a warrant search. There are many situations when it might be pertinent to take such action, but here are just a few:
- You have a hot date coming up but you want to make sure you properly vet them before meeting up.
- A family member has fallen into a crowd of ill-repute and you want to make sure they’re keeping their nose clean.
- You get weird vibes from your neighbor and want to make sure that they’re a safe person.
- You think that you may have broken a law and want to make sure that Johnny Law isn’t right on your 6.
- Your friend has been making a lot of questionable money from who knows where.
- When you may be in any situation with someone you feel could potentially be unsafe.
Keep in mind that a warrant doesn’t mean that someone committed a crime, just that they’re suspected of a crime. In some cases, a warrant only leads to someone being questioned and that’s the end of that.
How to do a Warrant Search.
Doing a warrant search, whether you’re in Texas or elsewhere, is a pretty easy process. There are a few ways to go about it, and one way you’ll definitely want to avoid because of the amount of time that it takes.
The way that you’re going to want to avoid is using resources provided by law enforcement. The records that law enforcement provides to the public is usually spotty at best, so it’s a good idea to look elsewhere if you need this information quickly.
Your best bet is to use a warrant lookup service or a personal background check service. Both of these types of services specialize in finding this kind of information for their clients, which makes it a really easy task to do in almost no time at all. There are just a few steps when you do it this way:
- Get to the service’s website of your choosing.
- Enter the first name, last name, and state of the person in question.
- Click enter.
- Look over the search results.
These services ping databases all over the country and provide the search results instantly. That means that you’re saving a great deal of time in comparison to using law enforcement provided resources and you can expect for a higher level of accuracy.
Always Get the Information You Need the First Time
Most people shy away from this kind of search because they tried it before and the results were underwhelming, to say the least. It can be more than a little disheartening when you aren’t able to get what you were looking for from this kind of search.
The best way to remedy that is to know how to get the information that you’re looking for without having to bend over backward to get it. The internet has made this task a lot easier and there are hundreds of services available to help you with this.