5 THINGS TO DO BEFORE SURRENDERING FOR ARREST

If the police have contacted you and informed you that you are going to be arrested, there are two ways you can react.  You can get upset or you can consider yourself fortunate.  The truth is, most people don’t leave their homes thinking they will be arrested at some point during the day.  Having that information beforehand can be very helpful.  While getting arrested sucks, knowing you are going to get arrested is better than not knowing.  You can plan in ways that most people who are arrested can not.  Below are five tips that can be helpful given the cards that you have been dealt.

1) GET YOUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER PRIOR TO YOUR ARREST!

One of the worst parts of being put in jail is the fact that you will go MIA.  Many people will not know where you are.  If you are arrested without warning, you can spend at least a day or two in jail without warning.  If you know beforehand, you can work on getting your affairs in order.  Call your job and let them know you will be out or away.  Arrange for child care.  Arrange for your car to be put somewhere safe.  Pay any bills or other items that may be due during that time.  Basically, you should schedule your affairs in advance as if you are going on a short vacation.  Often, when people are arrested, they will be released pending trial or on bail.  If you will need to get bailed out, start calling people and making arrangements for bail.  In many jurisdictions, making bail arrangements prior to an arraignment can lead to your being released quicker.  Also try to get your inmate booking number and give it to your family and friends so that they can find out when you will be going to court.  It is also helpful to get the telephone number to the court, police department, and/or booking facility to your family and/or friends.  This will save time that will otherwise be spent on inmate search engines and looking for central booking sites for the number to a central booking facility.

2) EAT SOME FOOD BEFORE SURRENDERING…

If you have been charged with a crime and a Police Officer informs you that you have to surrender yourself, the last thing you are going to be worried about is eating.  In fact, most people will lose their appetites.  This is a serious mistake.  Just like the people that push the propaganda about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the meal you eat prior to getting arrested will often be quite important.  In some cases, you may not have access to food after being arrested for quite some time.  In other situations, you may get access to something that others are calling food, but that you would rather not eat.  Either way, what you eat before arrest will have a great impact on your jail experience for the first couple of hours or even the first day or two.  Avoid spicy foods and/or foods that do not agree with you.  If you are getting arrested, it is not the time to go eat spicy Indian food or Mexican food, especially if those items do not agree with you.  You know what is worse than having your stomach turning in knots?  Having to sit on the toilet with 10 or 20 strangers in an open room while they become increasingly angry about your inability to stop your meal from revisiting you in a holding cell.

3) ARRANGE TO BE ABLE TO USE A PHONE

You can not assume you will have access to a phone.  While you may wish to avoid people, sometimes, when you have been arrested, there is a pay phone in a cell.  In such cases, it is helpful to have a phone card that allows you to call a 1800 number instead of using coins.  Do not assume that there will be a phone.  Do not assume that if there is a phone, you will be able to use quarters or other change.  Often, the phone is full or broken.  Your best way of possibly being able to make calls is to bring some change like a roll of quarters (which may be taken from you) and a prepaid phone card.  Also be aware that you may be put under duress because you have a phone card and people may ask you to use it.  This can be very uncomfortable and in some cases dangerous.  Getting a couple in small denominations is helpful.

4) WEAR COMFORTABLE CLOTHING

This is where knowing you are getting arrested before it happens can really be useful.  You may have to sit in your clothing for several days.  You also don’t know what you are going to encounter as far as temperature and conditions.  You may find yourself in a freezing room in the summer or in a hot room in the winter.  You may have to sleep on a floor or hard bench, or spending long periods of time sitting or laying on either.  You may want to dress in layers.  A top shirt or layer may double as a pillow or ground cloth.  Make sure your shoes are comfortable.  Also make sure that you look as nice as you can.  After all, at some point you will see a Judge who does not know you and will be making serious decisions about your life and freedom.  You may want to look the best you can.  You will also want to balance that with the fact that you may not see that Judge for a day or two and you will be in the same clothes.

5) SECURE YOUR VALUABLES

Jail is not the time to wear your fancy watch or to show off.  Often, the police will take your stuff for safe keeping.  If you do have a situation where they take items from you, try to make sure they are vouchered and that you get a receipt.  However, the best advice is, leave your valuables at home.

5) FIND AN ATTORNEY

If it is possible and you can afford one, you should hire an attorney before speaking to the police.  You have the right to remain silent.  It is not just a right, it is a really good idea.  Despite your inner voice telling you that you have nothing to hide, you should not speak to anyone unless you have an attorney present.  Speak to friends and family and ask for referrals for an attorney.  Attorneys who work on other types of matters for you are also a great source of referrals for a criminal attorney.  Just because your lawyer is a family lawyer, divorce attorney, immigration lawyer or personal injury lawyer does not mean that he or she does not know a good criminal lawyer!  Call people you trust and have them help you find an attorney.

WEBCRIMS 

THE WEBCRIMS WEBSITE UNOFFICIAL FAQ PAGE!

Trying to find out what someone was charged with in New York?

Want to know the criminal charges against someone?

Find Out Who Was Arrested in New York!

TO FIND OUT WHAT SOMEONE WAS CHARGED WITH IN NEW YORK AND TO GET CRIMINAL CASE INFORMATION, USE WEBCRIMS!!!

(WEBCRIMS IS A NEW YORK STATE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM WEBSITE, THIS PAGE IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM AND IS INTENDED TO HELP INDIVIDUALS LEARN ABOUT WEBCRIMS)

WHAT IS WEBCRIMS?

WEBCRIMS is an E-COURTS website in New York State that can be used to get information on what people have been charged with in criminal cases.  According to the WEBCRIMS site itself, “WebCrims provides information on criminal cases with future appearance dates for selected New York State Courts of criminal jurisdiction.”  WEBCRIMS is one of New York State’s ECOURTs/E-COURTS websites.  WEBCRIMS is New York’s Criminal ECOURT Site.  Basically, you can use the WEBCRIMS website for the following:

• If you want to find someone’s next court date in criminal court.
• If you want to find the charges against someone in criminal court/look up criminal charges.
• If you want to find out someone’s bail/find out if the Court set a bail, use WEBCRIMS.  CLICK HERE FOR OUR PAGE ON HOW TO LEARN HOW TO FIND SOMEONE’S BAIL ON WEBCRIMS
• If you want to find out if someone’s criminal case is still going.
• If you want to find out if someone’s criminal case has been dismissed, you can use it. (If the case is not in WEBCRIMS, it probably is not on the criminal court calendar)
• If you want to see the Criminal Court Calendar, use WEBCRIMS to determine the next court date in different Court parts.
• If you want to find out who the Lawyer is on a case/find out who the attorney representing someone in a case is.
• If you want to find out who the District Attorney is on a criminal case/find out who the prosecutor on a case is.
• If you want to get information about a summons in New York City, use WEBCRIMS.
• Find out if someone has an open criminal case in New York/view pending criminal cases.

CLICK HERE TO FIND CRIMINAL CHARGES USING WEBCRIMS (TAKES YOU TO WEBCRIMS WEBSITE)

FIND OUT WHO WAS ARRESTED!

Looking for someone who was arrested in New York?  What to know WHO IS IN JAIL?  You can use webcrims to find out who is in jail in New York!

KINDA!!  :-/

When people are arrested in New York (particularly New York City), they are arrested by the Police (most of the time).  So when the NYPD arrests someone, you are not going to find them without going to or calling the police station.  Sometimes, they drive around in vans for a while until they are finally processed.  When the person is processed and put into the system, sometimes you can find out information about them by calling the arraignment clerk.  WEBCRIMS is an amazing site, however, they will not be on WEBCRIMS yet.  The best way to think of WEBCRIMS is to think of it as the calendar for the New York Criminal Courts.  It contains Supreme Court and Criminal Court cases that are scheduled for a court date in the future.  WEBCRIMS is a future appearance system.  If a case does not have a future appearance scheduled, it will not usually be on WEBCRIMS.

SO CAN I FIND SOMEONE ARRESTED ON WEBCRIMS?!?!?

Once someone has been arrested in New York, they have to be processed before they can see a Judge.  Until that person has a court file and that information is entered into the Court system computer, you will not see them on WEBCRIMS.  That means that you may not see someone on the WEBCRIMS website until right before or right after that person is arraigned.  Before that person sees a Judge at arraignment, you are not going to see any accurate information about who the District Attorney on a case is, or what bail the court has set in a case.  Once the arraignment has happened (or right before) you can see someone’s charges on WEBCRIMS.  You can also see someone’s next court date on WEBCRIMS.  WEBCRIMS will also show if the court set a bail in a criminal case.

HOW CAN YOU SEARCH FOR CASES ON WEBCRIMS?

Remember, WEBCRIMS only has active CRIMINAL cases (and summonses).  If someone was arrested and the charges were dropped or if they took a plea at arraignment and the case is OVER, then you may never see the case on WEBCRIMS, even if the person was arrested and charged with a crime.  WEBCRIMS is a system which shows active cases in real time.  This is important because a great deal of the criminal cases that get filed in New York are dealt with by plea at arraignment.

CLICK HERE TO FIND IF THE COURT SET BAIL USING WEBCRIMS (TAKES YOU TO WEBCRIMS WEBSITE)

NO!  Just because a criminal case is not on WEBCRIMS does not mean it is not a pending or open criminal case.  Sometimes cases do not appear because the new court date has not been entered into the system yet.  Sometimes a case will not appear on WEBCRIMS because someone missed court and a warrant has been issued.  When the Judge issues a warrant, a new court date is not set.  This is a good example of a case that is still open and is still pending but does not have a future court date.  Such being said, the site is NOT an accurate way to rule out whether someone has an open case.  WEBCRIMS shows you if someone has a court date coming up in an open case (most of the time).  Another example of cases that are open which might not appear on WEBCRIMS are violations of probation or parole.  Sometimes people are on probation and they violate that probation (or parole) and get arrested.  In those cases, they can be arrested and remanded and will be held in a jail.  The person will not appear in WEBCRIMS in the probation example until the court sets a court date for a hearing.  In the parole example, because the hearings are administrative hearings, you may not see the person in WEBCRIMS.  Generally, case information is updated quickly on WEBCRIMS (daily), but that is not always the case.

CLICK HERE TO FIND CRIMINAL CHARGES USING WEBCRIMS (TAKES YOU TO WEBCRIMS WEBSITE)

FIGURE IS FROM THE WEBCRIMS SITE AND IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES SO THAT INDIVIDUALS CAN SEE WHAT THE OFFICIAL SITE LOOKS LIKE.  THIS SITE IS NOT AFFILIATED IN ANY WAY WITH THE WEBCRIMS SITE OR THE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM.  

YOU CAN FIND THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON WEBCRIMS:

• You can find the Defendant’s Name
• YOU CAN FIND THE CRIMINAL CASE NUMBER
• You can find a Summons Number
• You can find the next court date
• You can find criminal case information
  • You can find the Court a case is in on WEBCRIMS
  • You can find the Court Part a criminal case is in
  • You can find the Judge that is handling a criminal case
• You can find a Defendant’s Birth Year
• You can find the date a crime/incident took place
• You can often find the arresting officer’s information
• You can find the date of arrest
• You can find the time of arrest

YOU CAN NOT USE WEBCRIMS TO FIND:

• You can not find criminal cases that have been dismissed on WEBCRIMS
• You can not find criminal cases that are closed on WEBCRIMS
• You can not find cases without a future court date on WEBCRIMS (if a person missed court and now has a warrant and no future court date has been set, the case will not appear on webcrims)
• You can not find a case on WEBCRIMS if a Judge has decided to seal the case
• You can not find a case in which an eligible YOUTHFUL OFFENDER has been arrested and prosecuted on WEBCRIMS
• You can not use WEBCRIMS as an arrest inquiry – Cases don’t appear on WEBCRIMS immediately after someone is arrested

 I HAVE A DAT, CAN I FIND MY NEXT COURT DATE ON WEBCRIMS?

NO (most of the time)!  You can not use WEBCRIMS to find your next Court Date.  This is because when you get a DAT, the NYPD is giving you a ticket with the next court date.  The Court will not yet have that information and so they have not yet imputed it into the WEBCRIMS system.  That being the case, even though you have a DAT, it will not always appear on WEBCRIMS.  Just because you can not find your DAT information on WEBCRIMS does not mean you do not have court or that you do not have an open case.  Even if you don’t see your DAT on WEBCRIMS, you still have to go to court on the date of your DAT and/or on the date that any letter from the court tells you to appear.

CAN I FIND MY NEXT CRIMINAL COURT DATE ON WEBCRIMS?

YES!  If your case is pending you can find your Criminal Court date using WEBCRIMS.  As you can see from the picture below, the WEBCRIMS Appearances menu shows criminal case details including the date and part in which the criminal case is pending.  It will also show you past court appearance dates in connection with a particular case.  The Appearance menu screen will also show you the outcome of the court appearance and what the bail status is.  For instance, it will tell you if the case has been adjourned and if bail has been continued.  It may also tell you if a Defendant was remanded and taken into custody by a court.

WEBCRIMS: FIND COURT CHARGES IN NEW YORK COURTS:

If a Defendant was arrested in New York and has a criminal case in certain New York State Courts, you can get the criminal charges against them on WEBCRIMS. You can do the following on the site:

• Find charges against someone in :
• New York City Criminal Court
• Bronx Criminal Court
• Queens Criminal Court
• Richmond Criminal Court
• KINGS Criminal Court
• Brooklyn Criminal Court
• Manhattan Criminal Court
• Nassau Criminal Court
• Suffolk Criminal Court
• Dutchess County Court
• Erie County Court
• Orange County Court
• Putnam County Court
• Rockland County Court
• Westchester County Court
• Buffalo City Court

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT WHAT SOMEONE WAS ARRESTED FOR USING WEBCRIMS (TAKES YOU TO WEBCRIMS  WEBSITE)

JUST A NOTE:

People mistakenly use the following terms to find the New York State Unified Court System WEBCRIMS site:

• webcrim
• www.webcrims.com
• webcrimes
• web crims

This is not the official WEBCRIMS website and neither are some of the other sites that you may find that discuss WEBCRIMS.  Only the Unified Court System Site contains the WEBCRIMS official Site.

POLK COUNTY INMATE LOOKUP

Polk County Inmate Search Information

Des Moines Inmate Search Information

Are you looking to find someone arrested in Polk County? Are you looking to find an inmate in Polk County?

If so, then the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has resources that may be useful in your Polk County inmate search. The Polk County Inmate Lookup system/cook county inmate finder is located on the Sheriff’s website. The Polk county sheriffs inmate search is a good start for someone trying to find someone arrested in Polk County. While it is limited to inmates in Polk county rather than providing an inmate search in IOWA Prisons in all counties, the Polk County Sheriff inmate search system is a great resource.

CLICK HERE to conduct a Polk County Inmate Search (arrest search)

CLICK HERE for Polk County Arrest & Jail Info

CLICK HERE FOR Polk County Arrest & Jail Information-Bookings Previous 24 Hours

CLICK HERE for Polk County Arrest & Jail Information – Bookings Prior Date

CLICK HERE for Polk County Arrest & Jail Information – Releases Previous 24 Hours

CLICK HERE for Polk County Arrest & Jail Information – Released Inmates Search

CLICK HERE for information on visiting an Inmate in Polk County Jail

CLICK HERE for Polk County Sheriff’s office

COURT INFORMATION IN POLK COUNTY

If you are looking for information regarding your next court date in POLK County Court or for any other court related information, you can Check out the IOWA Courts online page.  For More information about IOWA courts online, CLICK HERE.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE ARRESTED IN POLK COUNTY

The Polk County Bar Association Web Site has information for individuals who have been arrested in Polk County as well as resources for the families of those who have been arrested.

CLICK HERE for the IOWA Bar Association website

CLICK HERE for IOWA Inmate Search Information

CLICK Here to see POLK COUNTY IOWA MUGSHOTS from the DesMoinesRegister.com Site

CLICK Here for IOWA Inmate Search Information