What are New York arrest warrants and arrest records?
An arrest warrant is an authorization, granted by the authority of the state of New York, that allows the police of a given county to find and arrest the person that was named by the arrest warrant. All New York arrest warrants are functional throughout the state, despite being issued by individual counties, which means that police can pursue and make an arrest even if the suspect moves to a different county.
An arrest record is simply a record of all of the arrests that have been made against a particular individual. New York arrest records can contain a wide variety of different levels of information, depending largely on the circumstances surrounding the arrest, although they will almost always name the suspect, give a brief indication of the crime that was committed, and will provide the date and time of the incident.
New York arrest warrants can only be issued by the authorization of a judge or a magistrate. This can happen after law enforcement officials, while under oath, present all of the evidence that they have gathered against an individual to the court and the judge. After the judge or magistrate determines whether reasonable cause has been establish, he can decide whether or not to issue the warrant. Once issued, police are able to pursue and arrest the suspect no matter where he is in the state of New York.
Are there ways to find arrest records and arrest warrants for New York?
Unfortunately, there does not appear to currently be an active database of every arrest warrant in the state of New York. However, there alternative ways to find arrest warrants. Generally speaking, the best way to get access to arrest warrant information for New York is to find the website of the sheriff of the county that you are in, or to contact them by telephone. Often, the websites of individual sheriffs will provide access to individuals currently wanted under warrant.
You can find directions for locating a wide variety of criminal records, including arrest records, at a website provided by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice at http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/. As with New York arrest warrants, you can also contact the sheriff of your county to make inquiries as to arrest records. Please be aware that often, you will not be able to access a full criminal background check without the consent of the person you’re searching for. You can use the website of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s tool to look at the records of every person currently in prison at http://www.doccs.ny.gov/.
Crime statistics in New York
The New York State Division of Criminal Justice has a page that deals with a wide variety of different crime statistics throughout the state, and you can locate it at http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/stats.htm.
Statewide, crime in New York has steadily declined over the last ten years. However, in 2010, there were a total of 865 murders, which was an increase of as much as 10% from 2009. The total incidences of rape also increased to 2,761, an increase of more than 7%. There were a total of 347,869 property crimes in 2010, which was almost identical to 2009. You can find this report at http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/NYSCrimeReport2010.pdf.