New Jersey Warrant Search

To find out more about the laws followed when making a determination on whether a summons or an arrest warrant should be issued in the name of a person against whom a complaint is being lodged, you will need to go through rule 3.3 of the New Jersey Criminal Code.

Section 3.3-1 deals with the issue of these legal processes and it states that a warrant can be released in response to an examination filed in writing with a tribunal only if:

• The judge or the magistrate of a municipal court, the clerk of court, or the deputy administrator of a municipal court finds that the petition filed for the warrant and any supporting depositions and affidavits set forth enough evidence to find probable cause for suspecting the accused.
• The affidavit in question has information that will clarify why the police consider a specific incident to be a crime and details on why the person in question is under suspect for committing the said act. Not only will this information have to be brought before the bench but also it should be adequate to convince the magistrate.

A summons instead of an arrest warrant and vice versa

The judge, clerk of court or magistrate can issue a summons instead of a warrant for arrest in the following scenarios

• A summons also has to be issued on the grounds of probable cause which should be established by the judicial authority presiding over the session
• It is likely that a summons will be issued in lieu of a warrant unless the crime that the accused is being held accountable for is heinous in nature like homicide, aggravated manslaughter, abduction, sexual assault, robbery, second-degree aggravated assault, arson and burglary, etc.

Active warrants for arrests are issued in such situations. Otherwise, an arrest order is released only when a summons cannot be executed or if the person it has been served to fails to obey the court directive. A magistrate may forego the formality of releasing a summons as a preliminary measure to get the defendant to appear before the tribunal if this individual poses a danger to himself or others or if there is already an outstanding warrant in his name. An arrest warrant is also considered to be the right legal option in cases where the address of the defendant is unknown

Other legal processes that resemble outstanding warrants and summonses

A subpoena most closely resembles a summons in terms of its intended purpose. Both these judicial orders are meant to command a person to appear in court. These orders are also similar to bench warrants when their processes of issuance are compared. The court of its own accord issues subpoenas. The same also holds true for bench warrants.

However, these directives are not meant to order a court appearance. They work just like arrest warrants, serving as commands to local law enforcement to detain a person. As mentioned earlier, bench warrants do not have to be based on an examination filed by an affiant. These orders are typically issued against fugitives and any person who has escaped from the law or has not obeyed a court directive.

Search warrants like bench warrants have to be based on proving probable cause in court. However, these orders are not issued for a person’s detention or appearance. They are merely meant to allow peace officers to gain entry into private property and to search it.

Finding details on arrest records and outstanding warrants from New Jersey

Of the different types of warrants and legal processes mentioned above, only arrest and bench warrants find their way into the police database. Although search warrants are also executed by the cops and released at their behest, they must be served within a stipulated period, or they expire.

If you look at the list of your county’s most wanted, you will find that all offenders there have criminal warrants to their name. While you could find details on the other legal instruments issued in the court records, it can be hard to access this information from the county clerk’s office even though they are in charge of the court dockets repository.

To find information on arrests that have already occurred in the area, it would help to look at the database of inmates maintained by the Department of Corrections. Their website and prisoner locator tool are available here.

It is also possible to get crime history information through the New Jersey Bureau of Identification which is an undertaking of the state police. Go to the New Jersey Office of Attorney General’s website to learn more about accessing background reports. Yet, you can only request a personal background check through this agency unless you have the statutory right to access criminal history data.

To initiate a warrant search in your own name and get a personal background check done, you will need to submit your fingerprint cards in person at the agency office. To schedule an appointment for fingerprinting, visit the New Jersey OPRA website here. Do not forget to take a check for $41 along with the form and with all the required information added to it. The address of the agency is:

Division of State Police Attn. CIU PO Box 7068 West Trenton, NJ 08628