Checking for a Warrant in Faribault
Faribault publishes no city warrant search of its own. A warrant check here means asking each office that holds a piece of the record, one at a time. Work through the channels below and write down who told you what.
- Call the Faribault Police Department at 507-334-4305 for the incident, the arrest, or the citation.
- Call Rice County Court Administration at 507-497-7134 for the court case and any order tied to it.
- Search Minnesota Court Records Online with the case or citation number.
- Review the Sheriff's Office outstanding warrant export through the Jail page, then call records at 507-332-6003.
- Confirm any possible match with the office that issued the order before you act on it.
Faribault Police and Municipal Court
Faribault has a police department but no municipal court. City officers investigate, make arrests, and write citations under state law. Those cases then go to Rice County District Court, which sits in the same city and hears everything from the criminal side of a Faribault matter to the traffic tickets that spiral into a bench warrant. That is where the file lives.
Faribault Police Department
25 Fourth Street NW, Faribault, MN 55021
Non-emergency 507-334-4305 · emergency 911
Records: records@faribaultmn.gov
Rice County District Court
Rice County Courthouse, 218 Third Street NW, Suite 300, Faribault, MN 55021
Court Administration 507-497-7134
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Faribault Police page posts the department's direct contacts, including email addresses for records and investigations.
Faribault officers take the reports and make the arrests. But the case file, and any warrant that follows, belongs to the district court across town.
Two Faribault Buildings, Two Warrant Answers
Two buildings in Faribault answer two different warrant questions. The courthouse holds the case file and tells you what the judge ordered. The Public Safety Center holds the jail and the county law enforcement records. Confusing the two is the most common reason a Faribault warrant inquiry stalls out.
| Building | What it answers | Who to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Rice County Courthouse | Case status, hearing dates, court orders | Court Administration, 507-497-7134 |
| Public Safety Center | County law enforcement records and jail custody | Records 507-332-6003; jail 507-332-6021 |
| Faribault Police Department | City incident reports, citations, and arrests | 507-334-4305 |
Note: Court Administration can confirm what the file shows, but only a judge can recall an order once one is issued.
Faribault Warrant Types
One Faribault arrest or citation can lead to several kinds of court process. The label on the paper decides which office you call and what happens next. The main types that surface in city cases are listed below.
| Type | How it arises | Who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| Arrest warrant | A complaint and probable cause | A district court judge |
| Bench warrant | A missed hearing or unmet condition | The judge on the existing case |
| Traffic or FTA warrant | An unanswered citation or missed traffic date | The district court |
| Sign-and-release warrant | Certain first missed appearances | The court, under state statute |
Faribault Warrant Records and Data Requests
Records held by the city come from the city, not from the court. Faribault posts a public-data rights page and an online request form, and it publishes a police public data dashboard tracking calls for service. Read the dashboard for a sense of how the department spends its time; it is not a warrant lookup and will not show any case status. For an actual records request, email records staff at records@faribaultmn.gov. The department also runs a tip line at 507-334-0999, but that line exists for reporting crimes, not for asking about warrant records. The Faribault police public data dashboard shows the calls-for-service figures.
Treat the dashboard as background on department activity, nothing more. It lists no warrants. Use the published contacts, never a number that arrives by text message.
Inside a Faribault Warrant Record
A Faribault warrant record carries a consistent set of fields. The identifiers matter more than a name alone. Have them ready before you call.
| Warrant number | The identifier the court and the Sheriff's Office share |
|---|---|
| Case number | The district court file for the Faribault matter |
| Citation number | 66-CR-25-00000 style identifiers, which can be blank on a warrant row |
| Offense date | When the conduct happened, which is not the issue date |
| Issue date | When the judge signed the order |
| Issuing authority | The judge connected to the case |
| Current status | The status term on the export, which can lag a later court action |
Faribault Ordinance Tickets Take a Different Path
Not every city ticket becomes a court case. Faribault's ordinance enforcement page describes an administrative citation process with its own steps to contest or pay, run entirely by the city rather than by a judge. That matters when you decide who to call. An ordinance question goes to the city clerk's side of the operation. A criminal or traffic case that reached a judge goes to Court Administration, because an administrative citation is not a criminal warrant and no bench warrant flows from it. Treating the two as one system sends people to the wrong counter every week.
Note: A city citation that stays administrative never appears on the county's outstanding warrant export at all.
How Faribault Warrants Fit the County System
City police make the arrests, and the district court issues the orders. From there the record flows outward: the court holds the case, the Rice County Sheriff's Office enters the warrant into its system and can enforce it, and Minnesota law lets an officer act on it past the county line. That flow explains why a Faribault case can surface somewhere else entirely. A warrant issued here is not tied to a Faribault street address, and an officer in another county can act on it under Minn. Stat. § 629.40. For the full picture, including the other cities, see the Rice County warrant records home page.
The Cannon River Task Force and Faribault's Role
Faribault is one of three agencies behind the Cannon River Drug and Violent Offender Task Force, formed in 2014 alongside the Rice County Sheriff's Office and Northfield. The unit handles drug and violent-offender investigations across Rice and Le Sueur counties. It is a shared enforcement effort, not a shared database. The task force runs no second warrant system and posts no most wanted list of its own. When one of its cases produces a warrant, the order still comes from a court and still lives in that court's file, so the usual Faribault channels still answer the question.
Faribault Warrant Records and Public Access
Court and law enforcement records in Minnesota are public unless a law says otherwise. The general rule sits in the state's data practices act. A few narrower provisions govern specific kinds of records.
Key Rules:
Minn. Stat. § 13.03 - government data are public unless another law classifies them, and inspection is generally free while copies may be charged.
Minn. Stat. § 13.82 - arrest data are public in the listed categories, while active investigative data stays nonpublic.
Minn. Stat. § 260B.171 - juvenile peace officer records carry privacy limits.
What Faribault Residents Ask About Warrants
Most calls to Court Administration come down to a handful of questions. Faribault residents ask the same ones repeatedly. Having them ready shortens the call.
- Does the file show an order, and what type of order is it?
- Which judge issued it, and is it still active today?
- Does the case require an appearance, a payment, or a filing by counsel?
- What is the process to ask for a recall, and who may file it?
- What should a person bring, and where should they go?
Scam Calls That Quote Faribault Warrants
Con artists have been working the phones in this part of Rice County, and their script sounds official. They name a missed jury date, claim a bench warrant is active, and pose as deputies to pressure people into paying. Faribault officials have flagged several versions of this scam, including a mailed notice demanding Bitcoin or Apple Pay. The tells are hard to miss once you know them. A real warrant is never served by fax or email. No court collects bail over the phone from a number the caller hands you. And the payment demand always leans on a method that cannot be reversed. So hang up. Then verify with the office itself. Look up the Faribault number on your own, call, and ask whether the case exists and whether the caller had any legitimate role in it.