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  1. #1
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    1. If it happens, it will take as long as it takes.

    2. If it happens, it will take as long as it takes.

    3. If the police are seeking the right to enter specific premises to look for a specific person, they will need to provide adequate factual support in their affidavit in support of the warrant request.

  2. #2
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    Mar 2011
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    Thanks for the reply. If it happens, how long does it typically take?

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    There is no "typical" time frame. Each and every case is unique and the facts dictate how long it takes.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    Quote Quoting John Truman
    View Post
    Thanks for the reply. If it happens, how long does it typically take?
    that would depend on whether they can get a judge on the phone or not. A warrant can be issued in mere minutes if a judge can be reached. Warrants can be requested and granted telephonically. The paperwork would follow later.

    If their is an urgency but less than exigent circumstances, a warrant can be issued quite quickly. If there is no urgency, as others have said; it takes what it takes.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    Thanks for the replies to date.

    When the original question about arrest warrants caught my attention, I decided I ought to know more about search warrants (a decision I'm beginning to regret), a wide subject, given the possible reasons for someone to want one. Therefore, I set out what I hoped was a case where the suspect was suspected of a serious crime, murder, of having committed it more than once, and of being about to commit it again (unless first apprehended). I should have made it clearer that the suspicion was that the suspect was a professional killer. Sorry for not doing so. A search warrant was wanted for his unoccupied premises as it was believed that there would evidence there of his present whereabouts.

    I constructed a fictitious case with the aim of presenting a question that would secure a clear answer. You know what I got. I hope I may try your patience by reposing my question.

    The suspicion is that a professional killer is about to kill again and that evidence of his present location is in his unoccupied home. Were I a judge, I'd grant a search warrant pronto. Is it not possible to say, from experience, if the 'typical span of time' for the securing of a warrant in such circumstances would be between one minute (the phone call solution) and three days (or three weeks, or three months)? It's hard to credit that a suspected killer would be allowed an abundance of time to kill again.

    Yes, I'm an ignorant non-police, non-legal citizen, but surely there's a limit to how long it's PROBABLE the issue of a warrant would take in a case of suspected murder. Please help, somebody.

    "Curiosity killed the cat, and right now I feel very feline" - John Truman, 2012.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    Listen very carefully....There is NO "typical" answer to the question. None. Zero. Everything is very fact specific. If probable cause does not exist, it doesn't exist. "Suspicion" that the person is a professional killer is not probable cause. The police generally have to be able to establish more than a baseline suspicion. A judge is not going to ignore that simply because the police say the person is a killer.

    How many times do you have to be told this?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    I have it now. The part from 'Suspicion' to the end is new, so I got that pretty quickly. Pity it wasn't given before. I got the 'over the phone' thing from jk immediately, too. It was a straight answer and he didn't try to be smart, which suggests that he is. My thanks to jk. As for the rest, I understand that it could take 100 years to get a search warrant in California. I understand it, and I'm surprised. (As I understand it, being surprised is not against the law.)

  8. #8
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    Jul 2010
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    You were given correct answers before, you just kept changing the details to see if the answer changed. It won't as there is NO such thing as a typical time frame in these situations.

    As for your little swipe at me, I'm quite intelligent and gave you correct answers. If you can't handle an occasional dig, the internet is not for you. Seek your answers in a law library or Google and quit wasting the volunteers time here.

    No being surprised is not against any current law. If only being thick was.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    Default Re: Can Police Obtain Search Warrant for Empty Premises Owner's if Whereabouts Unknow

    Quote Quoting John Truman
    View Post
    -snip-

    The suspicion is that a professional killer is about to kill again and that evidence of his present location is in his unoccupied home. -snip-
    John, I really can't tell what you're trying to get here.

    There is something in the law called "reasonable suspicion." It is less than probable cause, but greater than suspicion with no clear basis.

    If this were a true story, and police officers, based on information, truly believed a professional killer was "about" to kill again and the information to stop him was in that house, the answer is two seconds. There would be no warrant. The door would be off the hinges and the police would be scouring that house.

    True, evidence they found might not be admissible in court, and they might even get some grief for going in without a warrant, but if they had a serious belief based on information that they truly needed to do it to stop a killing that was "about" to happen, they'd stop it.

    God bless them. They have a tough job walking that legal tightrope, while always willing to put their lives on the line for ME.

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