What are arrest warrants and arrest records?

Arrest warrants are legal documents that grant the authority to the State of Pennsylvania to identify the location, apprehend, and then incarcerate the respective individuals whose names appear on the arrest warrants. No matter what type of arrest warrant might have been issued by a court of law, all of these warrants have been officially and properly authorized by a judge or a magistrate before they were issued. They also need to originate from the county in which the criminal act was committed, and all warrants have to name the individual that has been accused of having committed the crime.

Arrest warrants in Pennsylvania can be issued once the police officers can display sufficient evidence to a sitting judge or a magistrate in a Pennsylvania court of law. This procedure is also going to apply the respective police officers swearing under oath and stating that the suspects are, to the best of their knowledge, responsible or guilty of the respective crime. Soon after this occurs, the judge will be able to determine if he should issue an arrest warrant on the suspect’s name or not. In case the judge decides to go ahead and issue a warrant, the law enforcement officers will again be responsible for the apprehension of the suspect; they will have a limited amount of time to do so — 48 hours.

All PA warrant arrest records are to be regarded in a database consisting of all of the arrests that have been completed against a certain person. These records normally feature elements that come to describe the details of the crime that has been committed, the date of the crime, and of course, the physical description of the suspect.

Officially, members of all organizations that can gain access to the National Crime Information Center or NCIC are able to view full arrest records. Non-members can only have limited viewing and oftentimes bear restrictions for their own states.

Bench warrant are also official warrants that can be issued whenever an individual does not appear for a court hearing that has been prescheduled or whenever he misses one of his parole meetings.

How does one search for Pennsylvania arrest warrants and arrest records?

The location of Pennsylvanian arrest records and warrants can be done online or offline. This link: https://pennsylvania.staterecords.org/?uid=countyw&TID=Pennsylvanianet will provide you access to a centralized database of all current and active arrest warrants or wanted persons in Pennsylvania. You can instantly search and find criminal history and criminal reports with details. You will have to provide the search criteria, such as first and last name, middle initial, city, and age of the person in question (the last three criteria are optional).

Moreover, visiting the sheriff’s office website of the PA county you are interested in or personally contacting them via phone, email, or fax could help you further.

Pennsylvania criminal statistics

From1999 to 2007 there were around 900,000 total crimes reported in the State of Pennsylvania on average, and a small decrease was recorded toward the end of the studied timeframe. The figures speak about 46,000 total violent crimes occurring here on a yearly basis and more than 275,000 property thefts out of a total number of yearly crimes of 320,00 transpiring in Pennsylvania.