Forrest County's Most Wanted Program
The Forrest County Sheriff's Office runs its Most Wanted page from its own website, under Sheriff Charlie Sims and the agency's Operations bureau. The page is an appeal for public information about a chosen few. It is not a Forrest County records product. Behind the scenes, the Warrants and Process Unit serves Forrest County warrants, and the public page is just one of several ways the agency asks residents for help. You can find it at forrestcountysheriff.com. Names, photographs, and case details stay on that page under the agency's control, so look there for anything current.
Forrest County Most Wanted: What Is Missing
An inspection of the page in September 2026 found profile entries with short charge and age descriptions, and very little of the machinery a warrant record reader might expect. The omissions matter because they define how much weight the page can carry.
- There is no search field, sort control, or pagination.
- No total number of listed people is published.
- No update date or refresh cadence appears anywhere on the page.
- No notice explains that the page is incomplete, though it plainly is.
- No workflow tells a listed person how to confirm or resolve a warrant status.
Note: Agencies redesign pages without notice, so check the Forrest County site directly before relying on any description of what it shows.
How the Most Wanted Lists Work
A curated list exists because someone chose entries. That selection is an editorial act by the agency. Someone decides which Forrest County cases deserve public attention, and the county's remaining outstanding process stays inside court files.
| Who builds it | The Sheriff's Office, from warrant cases it chooses to publicize |
|---|---|
| What it holds | Profile entries with brief charge and age descriptions |
| What it leaves out | City court warrants, Justice Court process, and most Circuit Court process |
| How often it changes | No cadence is published, so treat every view as a snapshot |
| What it cannot do | Confirm, clear, or recall any Forrest County warrant |
The 2024 Forrest County Warrant Roundup
Enforcement pushes run alongside the published page, and they are a separate matter again. WDAM reported that the Forrest County Sheriff's Office ran a countywide warrant operation between May 20 and May 25, 2024, and that 15 people were arrested during that week. Read that number carefully. It counts arrests in one operation, as reported by a news outlet. It is not an official statement of how many Forrest County warrants were outstanding before or after. Neither the Sheriff nor the courts publish a 2025 or 2026 roundup schedule or any countywide amnesty. A news account of one week never describes current enforcement plans.
Reporting a Tip Safely
The Forrest County Sheriff provides an anonymous tip route from its homepage. Use it for information you are offering. Never use it to ask about your own warrant record.
Tip channel basics: the Sheriff's homepage at forrestcountysheriff.com carries an anonymous tip link, and the main office line is (601) 544-7800. No local source reviewed published a reward schedule or a guarantee beyond the anonymous label on the link itself.
Do not approach anyone listed. Location information belongs with law enforcement, not with a private citizen acting on it. Note: A tip about a warrant is not a court filing, so it changes nothing on any Forrest County docket.
Anonymous Tips and Forrest County Warrants
A Forrest County tip line moves information one way, toward investigators. It is not a lookup service, not a payment channel, and not a way to arrange a court appearance. Send your own name and date of birth into a tip form and you will not get a status answer. You may get no reply at all. Anyone checking a Forrest County warrant for themselves or a family member should be on the phone with a court clerk instead. The warrant lookup routing lists which office holds which kind of case.
Most Wanted Lists vs Active Warrants
The two are easy to conflate. One is a publicity tool with a handful of entries. The other is the full body of unserved Forrest County court orders, spread across five county forums and two city courts.
| Question | Most Wanted Page | Active Court Process |
|---|---|---|
| Who controls it | The Sheriff's Office | The court that issued the order |
| How complete is it | A selected few | Every unserved order in that court's file |
| Is it public | Yes, as published | Only through a clerk, and not when restricted |
| Can absence clear you | No | No, only the clerk can state a status |
A fuller treatment of the unserved side sits on the outstanding warrants page.
Forrest County Most Wanted Versus the Registry
The Sheriff's Office maintains a second page, distinct from Most Wanted, covering absconded and noncompliant registered sex offenders and linking to the Mississippi state registry. Both pages use the word wanted, so mix-ups happen. They serve different purposes. The registry page is a compliance tool tied to a state system with its own rules. Neither one works as a general Forrest County warrant list, and neither tells you anything about a court status. Note: Both are Forrest County Sheriff publications, so questions about either go to that agency rather than a court clerk.
If You Think You Are on a List
Slow down before doing anything. A published entry can be out of date, can describe a Forrest County case that has already moved, and cannot tell you the bond, the next setting, or what the court will accept. Call (601) 544-7800 and ask which court issued the process, then call that clerk. Bring your legal name, date of birth, and any case number you have.
Get counsel first. A Mississippi attorney can contact the court on your behalf and arrange a surrender or bond plan, which is safer than presenting yourself at a counter without knowing what the file says.
Federal Fugitive Warrants and Forrest County
A federal layer also works out of Hattiesburg, and it is separate from the Forrest County warrant process. The United States Marshals Service runs a Hattiesburg office at (601) 582-8464. That office anchors the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force. The task force joins federal, state, and local partners across a wide operating area, and its program page lays out the mission. Treat it as something other than a Forrest County warrant register, since a federal fugitive case moves through federal court channels rather than a county clerk in Forrest County.