subject: Is Someone You Know a Fugitive? [print this page] Is Someone You Know a Fugitive? Is Someone You Know a Fugitive?
When the public thinks of online criminal records, they typically think of sex offender registries, criminal court lookups or prison websites. There's now a fourth type of criminal record found increasingly online -- arrest warrants.
Arrest warrants, also known as "wants and warrants", are a form of free public records frequently overlooked by do-it-yourself detectives. The information has typically been put online by law enforcement agencies and courts seeking to find AWOL defendants who have walked away from their court cases. The information is increasingly being sought by Internet users looking for information on employees, tenants, acquaintances, and neighbors.
For members of the public, there's two easy solutions to conduct an online arrest warrants search. One is free; the other a low cost pay per search criminal background check.
The free method involves clicking to each individual government records website that contains this type of criminal record information and running a search. But don't worry, you don't have to actually go looking for them. My free public records website, Black Book Online has them all. Just follow the Criminal Records link. Nationwide, we currently have compiled a collection of 176 state and local government agencies who post their wanted persons online. You will need to search each website independently.
There's a second, better way that has a modest cost, but is faster and more complete. Crime Smasher is my online criminal background check website that was built for those who need to access criminal record information cheaply. It includes arrest warrants with each criminal report. There's a couple advantages to this option. First, you only search once and it searches all publicly available arrest warrants -- both current and historical. It also includes some data not available at websites put up online by law enforcement.
Something one is unlikely to find on a person's Facebook or My Space profile is that they're a fugitive. But this information can often be found online. Think of it as the "fourth type" of criminal records.
