Alabama Arrest Records and Warrant Search

Alabama arrest records, outstanding warrants and court dockets are the major legal documents needed to trace a person's criminal background. Each of these three legal documents has its own function in the criminal process that starts with tracing and arresting a suspect and ends with a trial and a possible conviction.

How to perform Alabama arrest records search

Jail records can be found at the sheriff office or in the county jail. Some sheriff websites contain an inmate locator and thus, can save you the time and bother of physically visiting their office and conducting an offline investigation. For example, use this address to electronically trace Jefferson County arrest records.

Locating an inmate in the state's correctional facilities

You can perform an online Alabama inmate search by going the official website of the state's Department of Corrections. There you can find a searchable database which shows the facility where an inmate is held. You can also see incarceration details, e.g.  a case number, offenses, and sentence.

Performing an Alabama warrant search

Unless a person poses an immediate threat to public safety or is caught in the middle of a criminal act, he cannot be incarcerated without official arrest warrants signed by a magistrate or a judge. Alabama warrants are no exception to that; a judge will agree to sign them only if he is able to identify a probable cause that an offense serious enough to deny a person of his freedom has taken place. There are two recommended ways to find outstanding warrants:

• The Community Information Center operated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency contains an electronic search service through which you can garner information on the state's fugitives. The database contains the fugitive's name, race, gender and mugshot. It shows the fugitive's offense type (e.g. felony or misdemeanor), the status of the case (active or inactive), issuing date and the time and place the fugitive was last spotted.

 

• For more accurate results, we recommend focusing on the county where the offender resides or committed the crime. This type of search requires visiting the sheriff office and going over their criminal data banks. Some of the websites managed by the sheriff offer a computerized search option, for example, you can find Mobile County warrants at this page.

Alabama court records

To run a criminal record check, you will need to turn to the county's clerk of court. They store court dockets that can shed light on a person's prior convictions. In the majority of the cases, you ought to submit a formal request to view public records and pay a fee. For example, Mobile County court records can be obtained by filling in a request form which can be found on the webpage of the clerk's Criminal Division. Some county clerks choose to present information on court cases on their website. For instance, you can find basic details on Madison County grand jury dockets here.

Finding the whereabouts of sex offenders

Parents are extremely afraid of sex offenders and will do whatever they can to keep their children away from them. Alabama sex offender registry enables them (and anyone else for that matter) to trace the whereabouts of former offenders while finding out how far they are from their home, school or work.