What are arrest records and arrest warrants?
Arrest records is a term used to indicate a dataset collected from various justice and law enforcement agencies across the state on criminal occurrences from West Virginia. All justice departments are required by law to send information on arrests conducted within their jurisdiction and the issue of active warrants to the West Virginia State Police which maintains the central repository of criminal history in the area.
Police are also expected to send in fingerprints taken at the time of booking. This information is eventually held in the system in conjunction with arrest records, case details, sentencing and incarceration data taken from the DOC. The West Virginia State Police has also been put in charge of maintaining the state sex offender registry which can be accessed at https://apps.wv.gov/StatePolice/SexOffender. Apart from this, the department also offers notifications on terrorism and information on missing people.
Till about a few months ago, crime history inquiries could be launched by contacting the WVSP.However, the agency has recently tied up with a private identity services provider Morpho Trust which now handles all applications concerning background checks including those from state licensing departments and law enforcement agencies from other parts of the country. It is possible to seek information on subjects through name based and fingerprint based warrant searches.
However, in West Virginia, you can only find personal crime history records and third party information if you are an authorized employer.In case of the latter, you will be expected to bring along a consent form from the subject stating that you are being allowed to launch such an investigation. It is also possible to get background reports notarized through Morpho Trust.
West Virginia active warrants!
Arrest warrants from West Virginia are judicial orders issued on probable cause findings. Hence, at first glance, these directives may seem like search orders.However, the similarity ends at the procedure used for the issue of these varying types of decrees. Where search orders are highly limited in their scope, being valid only for a particular property and for a certain time, WV active warrants can be used anywhere within the geographical boundaries of the commonwealth and even beyond, depending on the crime in question.
Then, there is a bit about the perpetual validity of these directives which sets them apart from all other types of legal instruments including bench orders for arrests. Outstanding warrants from West Virginia are those directives for detention that have yet to be served. These orders remain in effect for no less than 100 years, meaning that within the lifetime of the accused, the order for his arrest will not lapse.
Information pertaining to the issue of active warrants is held by all agencies involved in their release such as the judiciary, the office of the sheriff and the department of the county clerk which plays a more passive role in the procedure. They keep the database of court dockets. Hence,to find information on arrest records and active warrants, you can go to any of these local justice agencies apart from the state entities listed below.
How do I search for West Virginia arrest records and warrants?
If you are authorized to conduct warrant searches in WV, that is you are part of the employer category that has the legislative right to launch crime history inquiries, you can get in touch with the state contracted identity service provider Morpho Trust at https://www.identogo.com/. They also offer personal background reports and notarization facilities. For more information, you can also contact them through phone at (855) 766-7746.
It is also possible to find out about arrest records and arrest warrants from West Virginia including details on criminal case verdicts, sentencing, etc from the state judiciary. For this, you can approach the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The office of judicial administration does not currently offer the facility to conduct such inquiries online. So, you will need to get in touch with them in person at the Capitol Complex, Building 1, Room E-100, Charleston, WV 25305.
West Virginia crime statistics
Every year about 50,000 crimes are reported in the state of West Virginia of which about 5000 cases are brought to the police against violent criminal acts. In the ten year period from 1999 to 2008, approximately 650 homicides and 3400 sexual assault complaints were lodged with various police departments. Physical assaults were the commonest type of violent crime with an occurrence rate of almost 4000 incidents per annum.
Yet, the maximum number of cases recorded in the state were against theft at over 300,000 instances in the decade mentioned above. In terms of crime trends, there has been a decrease of nearly 30% in the average of violent criminal acts. However, there was a small growth of about 5% in the rates of reported criminal activity.