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State changes arrest warrant procedure
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The days of having someone hauled off to jail by simply swearing out a warrant for their arrest are over.New statutes put in place by the Tennessee legislature earlier this year have redefined the rules for judicial commissioners in determining whether they issue a criminal summons or an arrest warrant. A criminal summons does not require the immediate arrest of an individual -- an arrest warrant does.In a meeting with the county’s Policy and Personnel Committee and judicial commissioners on Tuesday, assistant district attorney Matthew Colvard told judicial commissioners of the new statutes. Said Colvard, “Tennessee has changed how you guys do business."He continued, “When you have a situation where nobody is a law enforcement officer and you’ve got one citizen swearing out a warrant against another one, or trying to, it used to be a race to get to the judicial commissioner and see who got a warrant on who.