An Illinois outstanding warrant refers to a court issued arrest order that is held back in the national criminal records system because for some reason it could not be served. There can be several factors that can impact the amount of time that it takes a law enforcement agency to make an arrest following the issue of a warrant. For instance, if an investigation follows after the warrant has been handed over to the police, the suspect may get enough time to leave the county.
On the other hand, if the police have another high profile case to handle, they may put an existing matter along with the warrant issued on the back burner. Finally, a third reason for the delay in serving a warrant is the possibility of the involvement of another individual in the crime.
Regardless of why an active warrant issued by a criminal court in the state of Illinois could not be served, such an order never goes out of effect. All active warrants are merely stored in the database of the local sheriff’s department along with a central repository maintained by the FBI which offers law enforcement officials information on all outstanding warrants in the country.
Even in case of the most trivial legal infraction, the officer in charge will run the name of the person who has been pulled up through this database and if a warrant is found against him, he/she will be arrested immediately. Depending on the severity of the crime for which the warrant was issued, the arrested individual may very well be deported to the issuing county to stand trial.
So, if you believe that there may be an outstanding warrant out in your name, it would be best to get the matter sorted out by enlisting the help of an attorney. If the arrest order has been issued in the state of Illinois, you do not have any option to get details about the warrant from the state police. In fact, any attempt to do so, will lead to immediate arrest and detention.
However, if you seek information on outstanding Illinois arrest warrants in a bid to learn about the criminal history of a person, you can always approach the local law enforcement agency. While the Illinois State Police does offer crime history information through mail and electronically, the details provided are restricted to conviction records which means that you cannot find out about outstanding warrants through these records.
However, depending on the case, the sheriff’s office will be able to help you out in the matter. This information is also disseminated through the official website of the law enforcement agency in many counties. For instance, the site of Will County Sherriff’s Department has an online tool to search for outstanding warrants issued in the area. However, you may not get this facility in the other parts of the state.
Another simpler option is to look for Illinois outstanding warrant information online through a third party site. While you will need to shell out a small fee, this is a decidedly safer option for people who are looking for warrants out against them and also for those who would like to access the information quickly.
Finally, because all active arrest warrants are issued by a criminal court in the state of Illinois, if you know about the county in which the crime took place, you can always approach the Magistrate’s Office in the area.Alternatively, you can also contact the county clerk’s office. They maintain the court dockets with information on all cases that have passed through the judicial system in the county.
For other crime history related information, you can get in touch with the Illinois State Police through their website at https://isp.illinois.gov/BureauOfIdentification/FeeSchedule. They accept request for conviction and criminal background information through email and by mail. Both named based searches as well as finger print verifications are offered by the agency.