Maryland Warrant Information

A warrant is a legal document issued by a neutral judicial official when there is evidence of a crime of having been committed. A warrant authorizes a police officer to arrest a person, search his/her property or premises, or seize his/her belongings.

Maryland Warrant Types

There are primarily four kinds of Maryland warrants: arrest warrants, search warrants, warrants of attachment, and bench warrants.

A Maryland arrest warrant is an order to confine a person.

A Maryland search warrant is an order to search a person, some property, or a particular premise on suspicion of a crime. This search warrant can also used to make arrests if narcotics are found on a person or within the boundaries of the property being searched.

A Maryland attachment warrant authorizes a police officer to seize a defendant’s properties before a judicial trial. Such a warrant is necessitated if there exists a conflict regarding the ownership rights to a property.

A bench warrant is issued when a person does not appear before the court on a scheduled date.

A valid warrant states the name of the person to be arrested or the precise location of the premises to be searched or a detailed description of the possessions of a person that are to be seized.

Maryland Warrant Records

Article 27, Section 736 of the Maryland Code deals with persons who have been arrested, detained, or confined for crimes other than a traffic rule violation. It states that the warrant records of these persons, housed with the police or the court, will expunged if these persons are released without conviction. Expungement means that these records are removed from the public domain and no one can access them without securing explicit permission.

As per the Freedom of Information Act, all warrant records in Maryland, except those that involve juveniles, are accessible. If the court orders some warrant records to be sealed, then these cannot be viewed.

The Central Records System maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) contains a database of Maryland warrant records. The database can be accessed at this site: http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex.htm.

You may search for Maryland arrest warrant records at FBI’s Reading Room situated at FBIHQ, 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC between 8:30 am and 2:30 pm. You will have to reserve this facility before 48 hours, by calling at 202-324-4682.

You may also dispatch your request to view a Maryland arrest warrant record to FBI, Record/Information Dissemination Section, 170 Marcel Drive, Winchester, VA 22602-4843.

The Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) houses a comprehensive centralized database of criminal justice information. This database also houses information on state warrant records. You can search for Maryland warrants at the CJIS web site,http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/cjis.htm. Or else, you can send your request to FBI’s CJIS Division, Attn: SCU, Mod. D-2, 1000 Custer Hollow Road, Clarksburg, West Virginia 26306. Enclose some identity proof like the name of the individual whose warrant record you are searching, the date and place of his/her birth, and his/her fingerprint records with your request.