Walk It Through: The Knock
7 a.m. to 10 p.m., a detailed receipt, and a judge within 48 hours.
Officers knock at an apartment early one morning and say they have a search warrant.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One apartment and one arrest. Tracking warrants, the bail schedule, and felony bail reductions are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Electronic Communications Privacy ActThe law under which a government entity may get into information on an electronic device only in the ways listed, among them a warrant, a wiretap order, or the specific consent of the device's authorized possessor.
- Night serviceServing a search warrant outside 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., which a magistrate may authorize for good cause by writing it into the warrant.
- Bail scheduleThe county's uniform list of bail amounts, which sets bail before a defendant has appeared before a judge when no warrant names an amount.
- Own recognizanceRelease on a promise to appear, to which a defendant held on a misdemeanor is entitled unless the court finds on the record it would compromise public safety or not reasonably assure appearance.