Lots of people have lots of questions about how an Illinois warrant search works. Between popular misconceptions about the topic, a lack of common knowledge, and a few other factors, it can be difficult to be sure that what you’re learning about the topic is true. It doesn’t help that laws are often written in language that commonly gives average laypeople headaches to try to read. Knowing about how warrant searches work in the state of Illinois is important, especially if you’re looking to find some warrant information in this state.

Let’s take a look at some of the common misconceptions as well as some facts that you might not have known about Illinois warrant searches. Hopefully, by the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll be able to hear someone speak on the topic and instantly know if they actually know what they’re talking about or if they’ve simply fallen for a lot of the misinformation that’s spread around on the topic. This information is incredibly important to have correct before you try doing your own warrant searches no matter what state you’re looking in because it gives you a better idea of what to expect.

Myth: Warrant Searches Are Illegal

We’re not sure where this myth came from, but it seems to be one that a lot of people think is true. In fact, out of everyone we talked to over the internet about this topic, the majority of people that don’t do warrant searches believed this one to be the truest out of all of the misconceptions. Maybe it’s just a sign of the times that something so blatantly wrong is so commonly believed, or maybe there’s something more to it that keeps people believing this information even if it is wrong.

If you look into this misconception you can see the logic behind it. The thought process that people have to end up believing that warrant searches are illegal is actually a pretty logical one, or it would be if it didn’t disregard the facts. It’s pretty simple, people think that this kind of search is illegal because the information that you’re looking at could warn a suspect that the police are looking for them. In turn, the suspect could flee the state or country, depending on how serious their crime is and how far they feel they need to run.

Truth: Warrant Searches are Not Illegal

We already made this point pretty clear through both the titles of this section and the previous as well as the content of the previous section, but we’d like to expand on why exactly it’s perfectly legal to do warrant searches. It actually has a lot to do with some laws that have been on the books for years as well as the way that our criminal justice system works. Before understanding exactly what makes warrant searches perfectly legal, it’s good to understand the circumstances that led to its legality.

Back in the day, lots of people felt that they couldn’t trust the government. There are still lots of people that feel this way, but the feeling was amplified by a lack of transparency on the side of the government. Lots of people felt that because we, the people, pay the government’s bills that it’s only fair that we can see what they’re up to. People and politicians alike agreed upon this, and the first government transparency laws were passed in the 1960s. This was the first time that public records were made law, and as time has gone on more and more information has become public records.

Warrant information is one of those things that ended up falling under the public record category, which is why we can access it. Now, there are some restrictions on warrant information that is made available. The two most famous of those restrictions are that police are unlikely to post warrant information for especially sensitive crimes out of respect for the victim as well as to not shock anyone that’s casually looking through the warrant database, and most police departments also won’t provide information about warrants for crimes that have an especially high flight risk associated with them.

These restrictions are in place for the safety and mental well-being of the public. By not including these on warrant searches, the police can be sure that Grandma Ingrid doesn’t accidentally stumble upon details of a gruesome crime while also ensuring that criminals that have the highest possible chance of fleeing have the chance to do so. Providing warrant information to the public also allows people that didn’t mean to break laws the ability to turn themselves in before they end up getting pulled in during a traffic stop. Remember, you can have a warrant out for your arrest for something as simple as skipping jury duty.

Myth: Warrant Searches are Hard to do in The State of Illinois

We understand how this rumor got started, and it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. People think that warrant searches are some task that takes a lot more effort than it does, and sometimes it does but it really depends on how you go about it and how many places you need to check. This one is the second most commonly believed myth and we find it a little more interesting because it is more true than the last topic we covered.

It’s not uncommon for people to try and get this information from avenues that don’t work great, especially for trying to get a lot of information. For example, if you want to try and get this information from any county sheriff’s department in Illinois, you’ll either find the information for one specific county or not find any information of the sort at all. That’s what makes it so tricky, and why so many people are under the impression that doing a warrant search is going to be a lot more effort than it’s worth.

The reason why so many counties simply choose not to provide this information is that, well, they don’t really have to. While some counties appreciate this information, not every county wants to make it easily available for one reason or another. Maybe they don’t want to deal with the hassle of creating and maintaining a new database, maybe they don’t have the budget, there’s no one single answer as to why this is sometimes not provided. Regardless of a specific county’s reasoning, you still need to get this information so you can be done and finished with your search.

Truth: Warrant Searches Can Be Incredibly Easy

Just about anything you can think of can be done online if you know where to look. All you need is to know what you’re doing and you can be well on your way to doing nearly anything you can think of, the only limits are availability and legality. You could order a pizza, cyberbully a United States senator, watch a movie, play video games, and learn about the entire history of Constantinople all within an hour if you know how to go about it. We won’t be teaching you how to do any of those things because those aren’t the topic of this article, but it just goes to show how truly powerful the internet is.

With that in mind, of course there are ways to access warrant information. It’s legal and there’s a huge market for it so it’s only natural that services would pop up to help people reach their goal. That being said, there are a lot of different services that are around that can help you find warrant information or even a lot more than just that. You can even find records from the entire country if you wanted to.

Because this article is about warrants, we have to recommend warrant search services. These services are able to pull records from anywhere in the country with ease. In fact, most searches are able to be completed in a matter of seconds, making this method exponentially faster than trying to sort through government databases. While there are services that can check in a specific state, there are also services that can search through the entire county with the same kind of speedy results. That makes this method perfect for people that have any issue using police records for this.

Warrant Information Made Easy in Illinois

Lots of people have wrong ideas about all sorts of things, and that’s ok. There’s a lot of misinformation that floats around, and it can be easy to believe something untrue about a topic that you’re unfamiliar with. Warrant searches happen to be one of the most misunderstood topics out there, but it’s easy enough to learn more about it if you just do a bit of digging. There’s plenty of information about warrant searches out there, and there’s always more to learn about just about any topic. Even doctors have to continue their education after getting their doctorate.