Warrant concepts and applications

¶ … arrest warrant and a search warrant.

An arrest warrant pertains to the arrest and detention of a particular person based on what crimes the person has allegedly committed. Evidence is necessary to procure a search warrant. However, once it is procured, the person can be arrested when found and whatever property they have on their person and the car they are driving in would be subject to impound and/or retention.

A search warrant pertains to the search and review of a certain area such as a house, car or other area. Such a search warrant is usually constrained to certain types of evidence such as blood evidence, hair/fiber evidence, video/CD/electronic media evidence and others or a combination thereof. It really depends on the nature of the crime and the evidence that is deemed both appropriate to collect and/or how it would theoretically pertain to the case if recovered.

What are the three essential components of an arrest warrant or a search warrant?

The first component would be the name of the person or person's that are either sought for arrest and/or the owner of the property being searched. For an arrest warrant, the person being arrested would be identified along with any known or potential aliases that the authorities are aware of. Pertinent information such as where the person lives, where they might be located and the car(s) they own or drive would probably be listed for reference/tracking purposes. For a search warrant, the area to be searched including the address would be the basic information.

The second thing that should be included is the statutory grounds that justifies the search taking place in the first place. Third, and finally, there would be a description of what/who is to be search and who/what is to be seized. How this would manifest would depend on the crime, the person and the situation. For an arrest warrant, it would normally be limited to what is on their person and the car they are in, if applicable. For a search warrant, it would include the location of the area to be searched including the address, the part(s) of the property or house that are searchable if only part of the property is subject to the search and so forth.

Compare the meaning of probable cause in an arrest warrant to the meaning of probable cause in a search warrant.

Probable cause for an arrest warrant would be based on the reasonable suspicion that somebody in particular committed a crime. A search warrant may or may not be tied to a particular person or case but it at least serves as enough information to justify that something illegal is probably or definitely going on in a certain place. For example, if a cop sees a meth lab in an abandoned house, he has probable cause (probably doesn't even need a warrant since it's in public view) to find out what is going on and who is involved.