Just because you have been served a warrant before being taken into custody does not mean that you have to confess your crimes. While the judicial arrest order is known to confer specific authority on peace officers, it also protects the person’s rights to be remanded into custody. Here is a look at the issue procedure of an arrest order and how it is used.
What do you need to know about arrest warrants?
An active arrest warrant is defined as a written arrest order signed by the judge of a criminal court in Pierce County, Washington. The document is only released after the magistrate has carefully considered the information presented in front of the Sheriff’s Department’s court. This usually includes:
- Crime related data including the nature of the incident and what led the police to believe that it was a criminal act
- Information about the suspect, including his/her name, address, age, sex, race, etc
- Evidence collected by the investigating officers (sworn witness/victim testimony will be needed if the magistrate finds the information in the writ inadequate)
What happens after an active warrant is issued?
Once released, the arrest order stays in effect until such time that it is executed; this could be for a few days or even a few decades. The central FBI repository of criminal data includes several warrants that are well over two decades old.
Once a warrant has been issued, the police have the authority to serve it at any time and any place and use any means of force necessary to arrest the individual in question.
What happens to Pierce County, WA arrest warrants that remain un-served?
All pending arrest orders are made a part of the FBI database and termed outstanding arrest warrants. Information about these orders is freely disseminated to the public and law enforcement agencies and officers from across the country.
How to get arrest records for Pierce County?
Contact the local Sheriff’s office at 930 Tacoma Ave S, Tacoma, Washington 98402
Warrant searches are only done in response to a visit made in person to the Sheriff’s office.
How do you get information on Pierce County active warrants and arrests over the phone? (2021- Update)
- To find information about recent arrests, contact the Corrections Division at (253) 798-4590.
- To access details on active warrants inquiries, get in touch with the Public Disclosure Team at (253) 798-7769.
- To access incident reports, call Reports at (253) 287-4900.
- To get access to prisoner records, call Jail administration at (253) 798-4668.
- To check on the progress of a criminal investigation, call the Detectives Division at (253) 798-7530.
- To obtain basic information or submit a non-emergency complaint, call the following phone number (253) 287-4455.
- To learn more about obtaining criminal court records, reach out to the Clerk of Court at 253-798-7455 (Superior Court) and (253) 798-7487 or (253) 798-6310 (District Court case records).
Crime rates for Pierce
The Sheriff’s Office of Pierce County handled approximately 8920 criminal matters in 2019. Of the total number of complaints filed, around 7760 were against property crimes while 1170 were against violent crimes.
With 4660 cases, larceny theft had the highest occurrence rate of all property crimes while burglary brought in around 1900 complaints. Aggravated assault cases formed the bulk of violent crimes at 840 incidents.
The county’s crime figures between 1999 and 2008 portrayed a negative image with an increase of almost 25% in an already alarming number of 4000 incidents per year. Over the ten years, nearly 36,000 criminal reports were filed each year, including violent and property crimes.
The figure for a violent crime, which was at over 10% of the total crime rate, included over 300 sexual assault cases and almost 25 homicides reported yearly. In most criminal occurrences in Pierce, the victim is less than a mile from his/her home/workplace.