Search for a Massachusetts Warrant

The State of Massachusetts was the very first state to have a proper warrant management system in place. The legislature for Massachusetts warrant reform was passed in the year 1994 which resulted in the formation of a real time database consisting of all warrants issued throughout the state. The system is now available round the clock on all seven days of the week.

The Criminal Justice Information System was formerly entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the different types of Massachusetts warrants but failed to serve the purpose. The objective behind creating such a state wide centralized database was to ensure that the law enforcement officials of the state could obtain the warrant information well in time. This has proved to be extremely convenient as it enables a police officer to check whether the person in question is wanted by other police departments across the state. The process of accessing the details of a warrant MA is extremely easy and requires no technical knowledge at all.

Types of Warrants

The arrest warrant is the most commonly used warrant by various law enforcement agencies of the state. It is usually issued by a judge of the Massachusetts court of law on behalf of the commonwealth of the state and permits the concerned police department to detain the person named in the warrant in order to bring him before a court of law.

The Parole Board, Department of Youth Services as well as the Department of Corrections along with the Superior Court are empowered to issue arrest warrants although a majority of the warrants are issued by the judges of the district courts located in the state of Massachusetts.

People failing to appear in court after being issued with a warrant are found to be guilty of ‘contempt of court’. An additional warrant known as a bench warrant is usually issued in such circumstances so that the concerned person can be arrested and presented in court.

Outstanding warrants are those warrants that remain active because the offender cannot be served with it. This usually occurs when the individual in question escapes from the law or even when there is a huge backlog of warrants to be served. These warrants are not deleted from records until and unless the concerned individual appears in court.

A Massachusetts warrant is also termed as a legacy warrant when it is not included in the database of the warrant management system. These warrants comprise of all hard copies maintained by the respective police departments of the state as well as the electronic copies that were included into the criminal justice information system but have not been incorporated into the new centralized database as yet.

Information Obtained from Warrants

A number of information pertaining to the identification of an individual can usually be obtained from the warrant served by the law enforcement agencies of Massachusetts. The name, residential address as well as the addresses of temporary residence can usually be retrieved by going through a warrant. Other identifiers include the date of birth, physical description like the height and weight as well as the color of the hair and eye. The nature of the offense as well as the classification (misdemeanor or felony) is also described within the warrant as well. The aliases of habitual offenders are required to be included in an arrest warrant too. The name of the arresting officer as well as the signature of the judge responsible for issuing the warrant needs to be entered in the warrant in order to make it a legally binding document.

Massachusetts Warrant Records

The state police department of Massachusetts includes the contact information for the division responsible for handling the requests for records of warrants issued by the various courts of the state. Victims and witnesses to crime can obtain specific offender related information as well as the date of warrants served by contacting the Department of Public safety located on 200 Arlington Street(2nd Floor), Suite 2200, Chelsea, MA – 02150. Other details about the various warrants served by the state police can also be obtained by logging in to official website of the department. (http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eopsagencylanding&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Public+Safety+Agencies&L2=Massachusetts+State+Police&sid=Eeops )

The various district courts as well as the superior and trial courts of Massachusetts maintain details of all court proceedings including the warrant records. The contact telephone numbers for the courts of the state can be viewed by accessing the official resource of the Massachusetts court system. (http://www.mass.gov/courts/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/contactus.html ).

Driving records obtained from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, Court Records, PO Box 55896, Boston, MA-02205-5896 will also reveal the existence of traffic violations and the records of outstanding warrants against individuals required for committing driving offenses.

The most wanted databases are public records and are provided by the various law enforcement agencies for reasons of safety only. The Massachusetts Department of corrections as well as the Massachusetts Department of Revenue provides details of the most wanted fugitives for criminal offenses and child support reasons respectively. The Massachusetts Executive of Public Safety discloses information of both missing as well as wanted individuals who have been evading arrest. Outstanding warrants against individuals wanted for sex related offenses are also given out by the Massachusetts State police Department.

Certain outstanding county warrants for serious offenses may be included in the database of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The names of individuals with active arrest warrants can also be accessed by logging in to the database of the information center.

Removal of Warrant Records

Removing a record for serious offenses amounting to murder or for instances of drunk driving is not possible at all. However, you can certainly hope for erasing it permanently from your records if you have a warrant out for trivial traffic or municipals violations. The best way of solving the problem is to pay the requisite fine well within time.

Records of bench warrants are usually wiped off once you appear before the court at the revised time and date stipulated by the court. Outstanding warrants can be handled in a similar manner if you are not accused of severe offenses which result in grave penalty measures.