How to Check for a Warrant in Southaven
Southaven offers residents more online warrant lookup tools than any other city in DeSoto County. It also posts the sharpest warnings about what that tool cannot do. Work the channels in order.
- Call the Municipal Court at 662-393-7042 and ask what the file shows for your citation or case.
- Use the city's court search to locate a citation, understanding that it is a court record tool rather than a warrant list.
- For a police-side question about service or transport, call Judicial Services at 662-393-8652.
- If a deputy or the Highway Patrol wrote the ticket, call county Justice Court at 662-469-8026 instead.
- If the matter became county process, call the Warrant and Fugitive Division at 662-469-8524.
Note: Phone staffing at the Southaven court thins during sessions, so call outside the published court hours when you can.
Southaven Warrant Questions at 8912 Northwest Drive
The Municipal Court sits at 8912 Northwest Drive, Southaven, MS 38671, reachable at 662-393-7042 and by fax at 662-280-6536. Doors open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a Wednesday closure from noon to 1:30 p.m. and holidays off. Ask this office about arrests, bonds, court dates, and tickets, which is the full span of a Southaven city case. The entry rules are published and enforced: no children under 14, no phones or electronics inside the building, and dress restrictions apply. Leave the phone in the car. That small detail turns people away at the door more often than anything else, and the midweek lunch closure is easy to miss when planning a visit.
The Southaven Police Department and Municipal Court
Two offices, two jobs. The Southaven court controls the case itself. The police unit serves process and moves people between custody and court.
Southaven Police Judicial Services
8691 Northwest Drive
Southaven, MS 38671
662-393-8652
Six Ways Southaven Warrant Records Are Searched
The Southaven court search opens with six tabs, each keyed to a different identifier. Knowing which one matches what you hold saves several failed attempts at the warrant check.
- Citation Number
- The number on the ticket, paired with a date of birth in MM/DD/YYYY form.
- Driver's License
- Licence number plus a state chosen from a dropdown covering all states and the District of Columbia, plus a birth date.
- Social Security Number
- Displayed in 111-22-3333 format, again with a birth date.
- Vehicle Information
- A licence plate number and its state, useful when the citation itself is lost.
- Name
- First name, last name, and a birth date. The broadest option and the most likely to miss on a spelling variant.
- Business Name
- Free text, for a citation issued to a business rather than a person.
Every field leaves status unspecified, so a partial entry may just return nothing. A blank result is not proof of a clear file. Sealed and restricted Southaven matters never surface in a public interface.
Types of Southaven Warrants
City process in Southaven grows out of city cases. Each type arises differently, and different officers act on it.
| Type | How It Arises | Who Acts |
|---|---|---|
| Failure to appear | A missed municipal court setting | Municipal Court judge and clerk |
| Contempt warrant | A violated court order or unmet obligation | Municipal Court judge |
| Show cause | A direction to explain a nonpayment or noncompliance | Municipal Court, in a scheduled setting |
| City traffic or ordinance | A citation written by a Southaven officer | Municipal Court, with Judicial Services serving process |
Southaven Contempt Warrants and Online Payment
The portal's own notice is unusually direct, and it may be the most quoted sentence in the county on this subject: an active contempt warrant is not automatically relieved by payment. Show-cause, failure-to-appear, and probation-violation matters require calling the clerk after paying, at 662-393-7042. Other limits sit alongside that one. Certain Southaven violations require court no matter what. If a person has been arrested, only adjudicated fines may be paid online. Citation-only matters require a plea and a waiver. Anyone hoping to take defensive driving is told to call before paying.
Caution: Paying settles a balance and may enter a plea, but only the judge withdraws process, so ask the clerk what clears the warrant.
What a Southaven Warrant Record Shows
Southaven city files are organized around the citation. These are the fields a clerk or the search interface can surface.
| Citation or Case Number | The city file identifier, for example SV-000000, and the quickest way into the record. |
|---|---|
| Court | Southaven Municipal Court, which controls dates, bonds, tickets, and clerk decisions. |
| Violation | The traffic or ordinance charge as the city recorded it. |
| Court Setting or Payment State | A scheduled date, an open balance, or a completed payment. |
| Warrant Language | Failure to appear, show cause, or contempt, surfaced through the court notice. |
| Bond | Not established by the blank search form; confirm the amount with the court. |
Southaven Court Days and Warrant Calls
The Southaven court publishes a weekly schedule. Knowing it tells you when a matter might be heard, and when the phone lines will be busiest.
- Monday: show cause at 2 p.m., prisoner initial appearances at 3 p.m.
- Wednesday: initial criminal at 9 a.m., probable cause at 2 p.m., prisoner matters, trials, and pleas at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.
- Friday: traffic, criminal, and fines at 9 a.m., prisoner matters at 10 a.m.
- First Friday of the month: payment-plan fines at 9 a.m.
The portal's contact page carries the fallback when the online service cannot help. That fallback is a phone call to the Southaven court, not another web form.
Where Southaven Warrants Fit With DeSoto County
City process flows outward only when it has to. The route runs Southaven officer or municipal judge → Southaven Municipal Court file → Judicial Services for city service → the county Fugitive Division where county process is involved. A county deputy or Highway Patrol ticket skips the city entirely and goes to Justice Court at 662-469-8026, while a felony matter sits with the Circuit Clerk at 662-469-8007. The county warrant overview covers that wider picture, including the sheriff's confirmation line and the records-request routes.
Southaven Judicial Services and Warrant Service
The police department's Judicial Services unit is the city's service arm. Its official page names warrants, court security, prisoner transport, and extradition as its functions. The unit sits at 8691 Northwest Drive, on 662-393-8652, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Use that number for police-side questions about how process is served. Use the court number for anything about the case itself. The Southaven unit sets no dates and decides no bonds.
Public Access to Southaven Warrant Records
Mississippi's access rules govern Southaven warrant records the same as anywhere in the state. The usual exceptions for restricted material still apply.
Key Rules:
Miss. Code §§ 25-61-1 et seq. - the Public Records Act gives a right to inspect or copy, with a set request procedure.
Miss. Code § 21-23-8 - municipal nonappearance, bail forfeiture, and bench-warrant process sit in the municipal court framework.
Miss. Code § 43-21-255 - juvenile law-enforcement records are confidential and never appear publicly.
Police-generated reports go through the police records route, not the municipal court. Note: If a request is refused, ask the Southaven clerk which exemption applies, since a narrower request often succeeds where a broad one failed.
Why an Old Southaven Warrant PDF Misleads
A December 2012 bench-warrant document still circulates, and its own disclaimer explains why nobody should rely on it. The city called it courtesy information, current only as of its date, periodically updated, and capable of containing human errors. Officers, the city added, rely on the court clerks, the judge, and the actual warrant. The document pointed readers to the court and to Judicial Services for confirmation. That remains the right instruction more than a decade later. Treat the file as a lesson about dated lists. An old roster tells you nothing about what is live in Southaven today.