Search St. Louis Bench Warrants

Bench warrants in St. Louis are a common part of the city's court system, and thousands of cases involve outstanding warrants at any given time. St. Louis is an independent city in Missouri, which means it does not fall inside any county. All court matters go through the 22nd Judicial Circuit. If you need to find bench warrants in St. Louis, you can search online through Case.net, call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, or visit the municipal court in person. The city resumed issuing bench warrants for failure to appear in August 2025, so the number of active warrants has been growing since then.

St. Louis Municipal Court Warrants

The St. Louis City Municipal Division is part of the 22nd Judicial Circuit. This court handles traffic citations, housing code violations, minor criminal offenses, earnings tax cases, and truancy matters. Bench warrants get issued here when someone fails to show up for a hearing or does not pay a fine on time. The court is at 1520 Market Street, Suite 1120, in downtown St. Louis. You can reach them by phone at (314) 622-3231 or by email at stlccweb@stlouis-mo.gov.

Starting in January 2025, all court dates in St. Louis are in person. The court had allowed virtual hearings for a while, but that ended. You can still ask for a virtual date by sending a written request to the judge. If you do not show up for your in-person date and the judge has not approved a change, a bench warrant will be issued. The St. Louis Municipal Court resumed bench warrants for failure to appear on August 4, 2025, after a suspension that had been in place for some time.

Note: The St. Louis Municipal Court does not handle parking citations, civil cases, divorces, evictions, or state criminal felonies.

SLMPD Records and Warrant Checks

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department handles warrant service and record checks in the city. SLMPD runs a Records Service Center that is open Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM. You can get a record check done in person at the center. A city-only check costs $4.50 and a combined city and county check costs $9.00. You need to fill out a Request for Record Check form and bring a state-issued photo ID or valid passport. Cash, money orders, and business checks are the accepted forms of payment.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department website has links to crime mapping data, public safety reports, and contact numbers for each division. For police report copies, call (314) 444-5551. For background checks, call (314) 444-5541. If you want to report a tip about someone with an active bench warrant in St. Louis, the Crimestoppers line is 1-866-371-8677 or (314) 241-2677. All tips are anonymous.

St. Louis Police Warrant Resources

The SLMPD website at slmpd.org is the main online resource for police services in St. Louis, including information on how to check for bench warrants and request records.

From the site you can find contact details for each district, read press releases, and access CompStat crime data. The records portal also offers express pick-up for certain document requests. If you need to check on a bench warrant in St. Louis, the records division is the best place to start after checking Case.net online.

How St. Louis Bench Warrants Work

A bench warrant in St. Louis gets signed by a judge when someone breaks a court rule. Missing a hearing is the most common trigger. Not paying a fine or court cost can also lead to one. The judge issues the warrant from the bench, and it goes into the system right away. Once it is active, any police officer in Missouri can arrest the person named on it. St. Louis bench warrants do not have an end date. They stay in the system until the court takes them out.

There is a difference between open and closed records at SLMPD. Open records include arrests from the last 30 days, convictions, and active probation cases. Closed records cover dismissed charges, not guilty findings, and cases where probation ended with a suspended sentence. Only the person named in the record can access closed files, unless they provide a notarized release for someone else to pick them up. This matters when you are trying to figure out if a bench warrant is still active in St. Louis.

The fees for record searches in St. Louis are set by the police department. Copying costs are $0.10 per page. If the staff has to do a long search, there is a $15 per hour fee that gets prorated for the time it takes. Most simple requests cost less than $5 total. These fees apply to police records, not court records, which have their own costs.

Resolving Bench Warrants in St. Louis

Clearing a bench warrant in St. Louis takes some planning. The first thing to do is find out which court issued it. If it came from the municipal court, you can call (314) 622-3231 and ask about your options. Some cases allow you to pay a fine without going to court. Others need a new hearing date. If the bench warrant came from the 22nd Circuit Court, the process is more formal and you may need a lawyer to file a motion.

St. Louis has a list of violations that can be paid without a court appearance. If your case is on that list, you might be able to clear the bench warrant by just paying what you owe. Check the municipal court website or call ahead to see if your case qualifies. For cases that do need a court visit, show up early, bring your ID, and be ready to explain why you missed the last date. Judges in St. Louis have seen it all, and they often work with people who come in on their own instead of being brought in by police.

Note: Some violations in St. Louis cannot be paid out of court, including DWI charges, cases involving injury, and offenses with a summons to appear.

Searching St. Louis Cases on Case.net

Missouri Case.net is the free statewide search tool for court records. You can look up St. Louis bench warrants by going to courts.mo.gov/casenet and entering a name or case number. Since St. Louis is an independent city, make sure you select the right jurisdiction when you search. The system covers both the municipal court and the 22nd Circuit Court in St. Louis.

Case.net shows charges, docket entries, hearing dates, and case status. If a bench warrant has been issued, you will usually see it noted in the docket. The tool gets updates from the courts on a regular basis, but there can be a lag of a day or two. For the most current information on a St. Louis bench warrant, call the court clerk or the SLMPD records center at (314) 444-5541.

St. Louis Independent City Status

St. Louis is one of the few independent cities in the United States. It is not part of any county. This means the city handles its own court system through the 22nd Judicial Circuit without sharing resources with a county government. For bench warrant purposes, this keeps things simpler in some ways. All St. Louis warrants flow through one system. You do not have to check with a separate county court the way you would in Kansas City or Springfield. The 22nd Circuit Court handles everything from minor traffic bench warrants to serious felony cases within the city limits.

View St. Louis City Bench Warrants

Nearby Cities to Check

The St. Louis metro area includes several other cities with their own courts and bench warrant processes. If you have lived or traveled in these areas, it may be worth checking for warrants there as well.

• Florissant (St. Louis County, north of the city)
• O'Fallon (St. Charles County, west of St. Louis)
• St. Charles (St. Charles County)
• St. Peters (St. Charles County)