St. Martin Parish Arrest Records

St. Martin Parish arrest records document every incidence of arrest conducted within the parish. These official records are available to the public and generated by law enforcement agencies, such as the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office. In addition to local law enforcement, state and federal law enforcement officers may also conduct arrests in the parish. Typically, arrestees are held at the detention facilities of the agencies apprehending them.

Officers of the Sheriff’s Office, a police department in the parish, or the Louisiana State Police may arrest individuals they know or suspect to have committed crimes. While booking arrestees, these officers prepare arrest documents that may be transferred to courts of trial when arrestees are arraigned. Court officials use the information contained in these records to prepare the St. Martin Parish court records required during the opening of cases brought against the arrestees.

Are Arrest Records Public in St. Martin Parish?

Yes. Law enforcement agencies generating and maintaining St. Martin Parish arrest records follow the Louisiana Public Records Law by providing public access to their records. However, these agencies are required to keep confidential records from public access. Such records include those sealed by court orders or restricted by state or federal law. Examples of St. Martin Parish arrest records that are confidential by default are those in which minors are the arrestees, those containing sensitive information, and those who release to the public may interfere with an ongoing trial or police investigation.

What Do Public Arrest Records Contain?

An arrest record contains information about an arrest including the identities of the two parties involved. A St. Martin Parish arrest record provides these information:

• Name, age, gender, and race of the arrestee
• Arrestee’s mugshot taken during the booking process
• Name of the officer making the arrest
• Name of the police department or Sheriff’s Office making the arrest
• Arrest charge
• When and where the arrest occurred
• Where the arrestee is held

St. Martin Parish Arrest Statistics

While Louisiana law enforcement agencies do not provide arrest statistics, the Statistical Analysis Center of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice (LCLESAC) publishes annual crime reports. In its 2022 report, St. Martin Parish recorded 2,012 offenses. These offenses are most likely to correlate with arrest figures for the parish for 2022.

Neither state agencies nor St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office provides a figure for the capacity or current population of the parish jail. However, a local news source put the inmate population of the St. Martin Parish jail at 186 as of October 2024.

Find St. Martin Parish Arrest Records

Finding a St. Martin Parish arrestee requires knowing which agency apprehended and detained the individual. Law enforcement and detention facilities at parish, state, and federal levels usually provide ways of searching for the location records of inmates. The St. Martin Sheriff’s Office, for example, publishes a regularly updated and searchable roster of inmates of the local jail. Arrestees held in state prisons can be found using the Imprisoned Person Locator provided by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Inmates in federal prisons can be located with the inmate locator tool of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Free Arrest Record Search in St. Martin Parish

Free arrest record searches for locating St. Martin Parish arrestees are available from official record custodians such as the St. Martin Sheriff’s Office, the state’s Department of Safety and Corrections, and the federal BOP. Besides these official sources, there are also third-party arrest record finders. These websites offer search tools for querying multiple official databases to locate arrestees wherever they may be held. While they can save you time when searching for an inmate, their access may be limited or their results out-of-date.

St. Martin Parish Arrest Records Vs. Criminal Records

A St. Martin arrest record is a law enforcement document serving as an official record of an arrest. While an arrest record describes a single arrest, a criminal record documents an individual’s history of arrests as well as criminal charges, court cases, and incarcerations resulting from these arrests. When seeking a St. Martin Parish arrest record, you would likely request this from the Sheriff’s Office or a police department in the parish. To obtain a St. Martin Parish criminal record, you would submit a request to the Louisiana State Police (LSP). The LSP offers both fingerprint- and name-based background checks. The fingerprint-based option is usually available to approved organizations vetting prospective employees.

How Long Do Arrests Stay on Your Record?

An arrest made in St. Martin Parish will stay on your record permanently even if the arrest charge was dropped or dismissed. The only way to get an arrest of your record in the State of Louisiana is to have it expunged.

Expunge St. Martin Parish Arrest Records

Expunging a St. Martin Parish arrest record requires

• Obtaining record expungement forms from the right court in the parish
• Complete and filing this form, and other supportive documents required, with the clerk of the court
• Paying the filing fee at the point of submitting the application
• Make copies of the court order provided by the court upon granting your expunction application
• Send this copy, along with required forms and fees, to the St. Martin Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, and Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information of the LSP

However, before filing a request to expunge your St. Martin arrest record, you should confirm that you are eligible for this legal action. If you were arrested and convicted of a misdemeanor offense, then you must wait 5 years after completing your sentence, parole, or probation or after a deferred adjudication. For a felony conviction, there is a waiting period of 10 years.

If the arrest did not lead to a prosecution, you are still required to wait before seeking the expunction of the arrest record. You must wait for 6 months if the offense listed on the arrest record is a misdemeanor that can only be punished with a fine. The wait period extends to 2 years for a misdemeanor punishable with a fine or jail term. There is a wait period of 4 years for a felony offense that is unlikely to be punished with a prison sentence with hard labor. If hard labor is a guaranteed part of a possible sentencing, the wait period extends to 6 years. Louisiana does not allow the expungement of an arrest record if the listed offense is a crime that may get the offender a life sentence or the death penalty.

St. Martin Parish Arrest Warrants

An arrest warrant is a legal document signed by a judge and authorizing the detention of a named individual. To get an arrest warrant in St. Martin Parish, law enforcement agencies must convince a judge in the parish that there is probable cause to detain the subject of the warrant. Once approved, this arrest warrant must state the following:

• Name and other identifying details of the subject of the warrant
• Probable cause for the arrest
• Name and signature of the judge approving the warrant
• Court where the subject of the warrant must appear
• When the arrest warrant was issued

Do St. Martin Parish Arrest Warrants Expire?

No. An arrest warrant only expires in the State of Louisiana when the person named on the warrant is detained by law enforcement or when they appear in the court mentioned on the warrant. However, while the named individual will be apprehended as long as the warrant for their arrest is active, they may not be prosecuted if the statute of limitations on their crime has passed.