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What are the options available for a warrant search or a criminal background check in NC?

When it comes to arrest records, I have always found North Carolina laws to be people-friendly. So, I’d say that you have multiple options available, whether you are looking for details on arrest warrants or are interested in a criminal background search.

 

But before you start looking for an arrest report or judicial records, I strongly recommend that you weigh the pros and cons of every option. I know for a fact that when you are looking for criminal records the amount and kind of information you get can vary greatly based on the source of the data. And this brings me to the first question I get asked when people want to know about the arrest inquiry procedure.

 

Can I simply walk into the sheriff’s office and ask for arrests records?

Actually, when looking for information on NC arrests, you won’t have to take the trouble of going to the local law enforcement agency in person. Unlike a lot of other states, most sheriffs’ departments in North Carolina offer a lot of data pertaining to recent arrests on their website.

 

But, the kind of information you get and just how in depth it is, will depend on the county you live in. Let me simplify this for you. All law enforcement agencies maintain a daily diary of sorts, which is basically an account of the incidents and criminal complaints handled by the office.

 

This is known as the police blotter and it includes the arrest log for the day. But, not every sheriff’s department allows people to access these police reports. If you were to segregate the law enforcement agencies based on the amount and kind of information they offer, you’d get three categories:

compac pistol with bullets on table.jpeg

 

  • Agencies that only provide details on incidents, accidents and arrests.
  • Departments that offer all the above as well as information on arrest warrants.
  • Offices that not only give you access to the arrest records but also allow you to find a specific arrest report online.

 

In my opinion, of the three, it is particularly hard to find an agency that not only grants access to its arrest log but also lets you launch an online search for the arrest history of a particular individual.

 

What can I expect when looking for an arrest log online?

The law enforcement offices of most NC counties will offer details on DUI arrests as well as arrests in last 5 days and more. Typically, you should be able to access details about incidents and arrests that occurred in the last 30 days.

 

At the least, you will be able to get information such as the name of the detainee, the charges against him/her, name of the arresting officer/agency and name of the detention facility that this person is being held at. While some counties also provide arrest mugshots, many don’t. I believe this is best explained with a few examples: So, here they are:

 

1. Arrest records for Wake County: The local law enforcement agency offers a daily bulletin on its website at http://p2c.wakeso.net/dailybulletin.aspx. The event type filter on the page allows you to choose the type of information that you want to access. The options include arrests, citations, ordinance violations, incidents and traffic violations. This is almost as good as the police blotter and you can view current as well as old arrest records, including those that date back to a year and more.

 

2. Raleigh arrests records: Although you would get information on Raleigh arrests from the Wake Sheriff’s Office/website, a better option is to use the arrest inquiry facility offered by the City-County Bureau of Identification at https://dwslivescan.co.wake.nc.us/mug/Disclaimer.aspx. The advantage of opting for this service is that along with crime related details and identifier data, you also get access to arrest mugshots.

 

3. Guildford county arrest records: I would say that the website of Guildford County Sheriff’s Department is possibly one of the most extensive sources of information on NC felony records, albeit one that is limited to the geographical jurisdiction of the agency. You will find everything from the arrest log to criminal case police reports and even the most wanted list along with the arrest mugshots on the agency’s website at https://p2c.guilfordcountysheriff.com/.

 

You don’t always have to turn to the sheriff’s department for the arrest list. For instance, details on Raleigh, Fayetteville and Durham arrests can also be found on https://www.wral.com/.

 

How do I access jail records from North Carolina?

I have noticed that a lot of people initiate a search for jail records to find correctional data. What you need to understand is that the county jail usually does not house convicts except for those who have been found guilty of petty offenses.

two man hand cuffed and arrested.jpegThis facility is not managed by the Department of Corrections like state penitentiaries. County jails come under the jurisdiction of the local sheriff’s department and that is the agency to approach for information on inmates. Jail records are a good way to know about recent arrests in the area. Generally, you will find an inmate search tool/list on the website of law enforcement agencies. For example:

 

 

As you can see, a few minutes on the internet will get you a lot of crime related data from the counties listed above. But, not all law enforcement agencies in NC are as forthcoming. For instance, arrest records from Yancey, Moore and Scotland counties cannot be found on the website of the local sheriffs’ departments. So, if you want to get your hands on the arrest log for one of these areas, you will have to visit the office of the local law enforcement agency.

 

Arrest warrants

I am sure by now you are assuming that since it is so easy to get information on arrests in NC, a warrant search must be just as simple. Well, not really! In fact, only a few counties provide details on active warrants. This begs the question-

 

Why the secrecy surrounding data on warrants?

The answer is simple- In case of arrests, the police have fulfilled their responsibility by apprehending the accused. However, when it comes to outstanding warrants, the suspects have yet to be detained. If a law enforcement agency makes its warrant database public, the information on such arrest orders will also inevitably be available to the suspects.

 

Now, it would be illogical to assume that these individuals will simply show up at the precinct and ask to be locked up. Come to think of it, there is a greater chance of them making a run for it than surrendering.

 

So, is there no way to do a warrant search in NC?

Fortunately for all of us kindred souls, who are interested in a warrant check, a few law enforcement agencies do offer access to the list of their warrants for arrest. In some area, the local police will give you access to their complete warrant list, which will not only include information on arrest orders related to serious misdemeanors and felonies but also details on bench warrants.

FEG budapest .9 mm pistol with fully loaded magazine d near table.jpegTypically, you can expect to get information at least on the top ten suspects/offenders in the most wanted list of the agency. Of course, there are also those police departments that will only allow a warrants search through their office. Take a look at the information you can get from a warrants inquiry in different counties of North Carolina.

 

  • Arrest warrants from Mecklenburg County: The local law enforcement office is one of the few agencies in the state that allows civilians to look through the warrants database. You can do a warrant check by using the tool https://mecksheriffweb.mecklenburgcountync.gov/Warrant.
  • Warrant inquiry in Guildford County: The most wanted list on the sheriff’s website of Guildford at https://p2c.guilfordcountysheriff.com/wantedlist.aspx#   does have information on quite a few warrants. However, most of these are issued in civil matters. So, this is more a bench warrant check than an inquiry on criminal arrest warrants .
  • Gaston County warrant check: For any inquiry on outstanding warrants from Gaston, you will have to visit the sheriff’s office in person at 425 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Gastonia, NC 28052.
  • Cleveland County warrant lookup: You can get information on some of the active warrants from Cleveland by going through the most wanted list on sheriff’s website at http://www.sheriffclevelandcounty.com/online-records.htm. Although you will seldom get access to information on more than 8-10 warrants, they do provide photographs of their most wanted suspects.
  • Winston warrants records: For the City of Winston-Salem, you will find the wanted list at http://www.wspdp2c.org/wantedlist.aspx. The local PD offers information on felony warrants as well as bench warrants through this service.
  • Warrant search in Rowen County:  The Sheriff’s Office of Rowen also offers information on outstanding warrants through the most wanted list on agency’s website. This is available at https://ossip2c.rowancountync.gov/p2c/wantedlist.aspx and unlike some other counties of NC, you can find more than just bench warrants in this repository.
  • Wilson County arrest warrants: The local law enforcement agency of Wilson offers a similar facility on their website at http://p2c.wilsonnc.org/wantedlist.aspx#. Like Rowen, the most wanted list of Wilson County also has information on both active warrants as well as bench warrants, which get issued in civil matters.
  • Union County warrant list: This information is available on http://sheriff.co.union.nc.us/wantedlist.aspx and as you can see, the database has details on both criminal as well as civil warrants.
  • Arrest warrants from Forsyth County: You will find information on all outstanding warrants from Forsyth County at https://p2c.fcso.us/wantedlist.aspx.

 

As I explained, there are many agencies that will allow people to access information on civil orders for arrest but they don’t offer details on criminal arrest warrants. For instance, the Sheriff’s Office of Harnett County has a webpage dedicated to deadbeat parents at http://onlineservices.cabarruscounty.us/p2c/wantedlist.aspx#. Similarly, the most wanted list of Cabarrus County at http://onlineservices.cabarruscounty.us/p2c/wantedlist.aspx# only has information on civil arrest orders.

 

What if I cannot find the arrest warrant database on the sheriff’s website?

If the local police do not want to offer information on NC criminal warrants through their website then you can either approach the law enforcement agency in person or get in touch with the judiciary. In both cases, the information will be limited to the county in which you initiate the warrant search.

 

Although the judiciary and the sheriff’s department will provide the warrant search facility for free, this option won’t work for a person who has an outstanding warrant against him. Remember that these arrest orders allow the police to take you into custody on the spot. Fortunately, most violation related arrest warrants can be sorted out by paying a fine.

 

If you intend to approach the office of the sheriff for the inquiry, get in touch with the warrant division of the agency. They will rarely offer information on outstanding processes over the phone. So, you will have to drive down to their office for the warrant search.

 

Is a warrant lookup the same as a warrant roundup?

Not at all! A warrant round up does not involve civilians in any sense. It is basically a term used for a multi or single law enforcement agency operation that involves the serving of as many outstanding warrants as possible within a short time.

In a nutshell, the police knock on the doors of suspects/offenders and take them into custody. A warrant roundup is not limited to orders of arrest issued in relation to traffic/civil ordinance violations, although habitual offenders in these categories will also be detained.

 

While you can launch a warrant check through the local law enforcement agency, you cannot saunter into the sheriff’s office asking for information on their next warrant roundup operation. In fact, details on such initiatives are not even provided to the media.

 

After all, the idea is to arrest the maximum number of offenders, which means that the element of surprise works in favor of the police. That said, such initiatives are seldom launched in the smaller counties. Usually, it’s the larger counties that have thousands of arrest warrants languishing in their system that start working proactively towards bringing the offenders to justice.

 

Court records

By now you must have gauged that local judicial offices are an alternate source for criminal case information. In my opinion, these guys go a step further and often provide more details in response to a case search than even the sheriff’s office.

 

That said, you’d assume that it would be a cake walk to access criminal court records in NC, since they provide information on arrests and even police reports so freely. Well, I am going to give you a bit of a heads up here- Prepare to be surprised!

 

It is near impossible to access a court docket online in North Carolina and believe me when I say that I have explored every avenue out there, which brings me to the question-

 

Why is it so hard to access NC judicial records online?

Honestly, I haven’t got a clue! Since they do allow people to use the public service terminals at the clerk of court’s office to access judicial records for free, I don’t understand what would be the harm in offering a case lookup facility online.

 

Yes, the judiciary is making money from official criminal background reports and I will get to that in the next section. But, that is still no reason to restrict access to the court dockets database.

 

So, NC does not have a statewide courts open access network?

They do, which is the surprising bit. However, it is not available for regular folks, unless you have more than $500 to spare for the judicial records you need. Let me explain this further.

 

The North Carolina Judicial Branch offers Remote Public Access (RPA) to its database of court records. The amount of information made available to the licensee is massive to say the least because it includes criminal court dockets as well as civil court records from all 100 counties of NC.

 

Basically, the licensee gets the same information that is held by all the clerk of court’s offices across the state, just in an aggregated form. The criminal court records not only include details on convictions but also on pending cases, arrest warrants, prior convictions and arrests and more. Civil court dockets include details on everything from tax liens to evictions and more. In case you are wondering how much would this mother load of data cost you?

 

Well, you are looking at a one-time fee of $495 and $70 for each additional user. Plus, you will have to pay $0.21 per inquiry/transaction. You can find more information on RPA at https://www.nccourts.gov/services/remote-public-access-program/rpa-online-access.

 

Can I find any information at all on North Carolina court cases online?

1. The court calendar: You can only find the court calendar online. I agree it is not a whole lot of information. But, it can prove to be a starting point, particularly if your subject has recently been to court for a civil or criminal matter.

 

You can access the court calendar for all the counties of NC at https://www.nccourts.gov/court-dates. This is the only court records search that can be initiated by name, for free and online. I suggest that you search both the civil and the criminal court calendars and instead of browsing through all court cases that are due for hearing, use the name of your subject.

 

The information you get will have the full name of the defendant/plaintiff, a very brief note on the offense/matter, name of the court and the date of hearing.  You can find the calendars for all the courts in a particular county that hear criminal matters by using the tool at http://www1.aoc.state.nc.us/www/calendars/Criminal.html.

 

2. Court collections:  You can also do a case lookup for matters that involve fine/fees collection by the court by using the tool at https://www3.nccourts.org/onlinepayments/menu.sp. However, to initiate the inquiry, you will need the case number and the name of the county in which the case was filed.

 

3. Details of citations and payments: You can also find information on citations through the judicial website. You will need the citation number or the name of the defendant for the search. This facility is available at https://www3.nccourts.org/onlineservices/menu.sp.

 

What information can I get through a case lookup?

Assuming that you intend to take your inquiry to the office of the court clerk of your county, using the public service terminals can get details on the status of the criminal case, verdict, correctional data, offender/suspect identifier information and arrests related information. The search for courts records can be initiated by using:

 

  • The case number
  • The name of the victim
  • The name of defendant
  • The name of the witness/attorney

 

There are no charges for using the public service terminal or for the case lookup. You will, however, have to pay for any copies that you may need. To find the address of the clerk of court’s office of your county, go to https://www.nccourts.gov/locations.

 

Is there a way to file the request for the court records search online?

Although there is no way to access a court docket online, you can file a request for information on court cases through the website of the clerk of court’s office. However, this facility is only offered in some counties.

 

Because the report of the case search will be sent to you by mail or will be offered to you in printed form when you visit the office in person, this is not a free service.  Let me tell you about some of the counties where you can file the request for the court records online:

 

 

Criminal court records accessed through a particular clerk of court’s office will only have information on the matters heard by the courts in that county. Furthermore, the criminal court records may not always include police reports or even information on outstanding arrest warrants. Generally, you will end up paying about $3 for the first 5-7 pages and $0.25 per page after that.

 

Criminal records

Since we are on the last section of this article, I bet you are wondering why bother with a criminal records search when you already have the arrest log, information on warrants and limited judicial records in the  form of the court calendar.

 

While all of the above are undoubtedly the pieces of the puzzle that is your subject, a criminal background check will get you the entire puzzle and completely solved too. Think of a criminal history report as the aggregation of all the criminal court records in the name of your subject. If that is what you are interested in, there are three ways in which you can do a criminal check in North Carolina.

 

How do I access public criminal records?

You can’t always go to the local sheriff’s office with your request for a criminal background check. In fact, even if you don’t need a certified copy of the information, you will still often be sent to the clerk of court’s office for a criminal court docket.

 

Although you can browse the criminal court records database of the judiciary by using the public service computers, this is not the same as a getting a crime history report from the office. Granted that the results of your inquiry will set you back by $25, but we are talking about all inclusive data from a particular county.

 

Because it is a name based check, there is some scope for error. However, the fact that you get old and new records as well as information on criminal warrants, ongoing cases and details on parole and probationary release makes it well worth the cost. You can make a request for the criminal records check either in person or through mail.

 

Use the form at https://www.nccourts.gov/assets/documents/forms/cr314-en.pdf?_cBit9iQdf_FkWVD993aR4qpQQ.iVKr5 for providing the required information. You can initiate the criminal check in your own name or that of a third party. The procedure and the form will be the same. You can pay:

 

  • By money order or certified check if you are filing the request through mail.
  • In cash, by credit card or by certified check/money order if visiting the agency office in person.

 

Fill the form above and send it to the office of the clerk of superior court of your county. It usually takes 7-10 days to receive the report. If you are at the agency office, you will be given the results of your inquiry within a matter of minutes. Let me get you started with a few mailing addresses:

 

  • For criminal records from Durham: Approach the clerk’s office at 510 S Dillard St, Durham, NC 27701.
  • To get criminal court records from Charlotte: Go/write to Mecklenburg County Clerk of Court at 832 East Fourth St, Charlotte, NC 28202.
  • Criminal records from Greensboro: Access these by visiting the Guildford County Court Clerk’s office at 201 South Eugene St, Greensboro, NC 27401.
  • Raleigh criminal records: These can be obtained by going to the Wake County Courthouse at 316 Fayetteville St, Raleigh, NC 27601.
  • Fayetteville criminal court records: For these, go to the Cumberland County Courthouse at 117 Dick Street Fayetteville, NC 28301.
  • Criminal court dockets from Yancey: You can visit the office of the Yancey County Court Clerk at 110 Towne Square, Room 5, Burnsville, NC 28714.
  • Brunswick County criminal records check: Approach the local judiciary at 310 Government Center Dr NE, Bolivia, NC 28422.
  • Wilmington criminal court records: Go to the Courthouse of New Hanover County at 316 Princess St #112, Wilmington, NC 28401.
  • Cherokee criminal court dockets: Call on the Clerk of Court at 75 Peachtree St, Murphy, NC 28906.
  • Haywood criminal records search: You can connect with the clerk’s office by going to the Haywood County Justice Center at 285 N Main St, Waynesville, NC 28786

 

In addition to the office of the local judiciary, you can also seek a criminal case search through private agencies. These establishments are RPA licensees but not endorsed by the NC Judicial Branch. You can find a list of these private criminal background check providers at https://www.nccourts.gov/documents/publications/criminal-background-check-companies. Fees vary widely among offices and they may/may not provide their services online.

 

Is there a way in which I can launch a North Carolina statewide criminal records search?

Yes, you can find criminal court records from all 100 counties of NC, but only if the subject is you and not someone else. What I am trying to say here is that this information is not a part of public criminal records like the court dockets.

 

1. Personal criminal records search: Like in all other states, you do have the right to access your own criminal history report. In NC, this service comes to you courtesy of the State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI). The agency offers a fingerprint based criminal records check for $14.

 

The fingerprinting can be done at the office of your local law enforcement agency. You will have to mail the fingerprint cards along with a money order/certified check and the form at http://ncsbi.gov/Services/SBI-Forms/SBIRight-to-Review__FILLABLEJan2017.aspx duly filled to the NCSBI. Sorry folks, you cannot visit the office of the SBI in a bid to get your crime records faster.

 

2. Third party criminal check: Employers are allowed to access the criminal history records of their employees only if there is a federal statute, a local ordinance or a state law that allows/requires them to do so. If you are such an employer, fill the form above, clearly stating the statute/NC law that calls for the inquiry. Email this form to AIUhelp@ncsbi.gov and you will receive an information packet that includes the access agreement. Further details on the procedure are available at http://ncsbi.gov/Divisions/Support-Services/Criminal-Information-and-Identification/Background-Checks-FAQ.aspx.

 

What other options are available for a criminal search in NC?

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety offers an offender search tool at https://webapps.doc.state.nc.us/opi/offendersearch.do?method=view. This can be used to initiate an inmate search. Through this service, you can get information not just on current inmates but also on probationers, paroles and offenders who have been released after sentence completion.

 

The criminal records date back to 1972 and include details on escapees and absconders as well. However, you will not get information on jail inmates. This is a free criminal check facility and the inquiry can be initiated by using either the name or the inmate number of the subject.

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