Reading a Search Warrant
725 ILCS 5/108-7 — the place and the things to be seized, each particularly described
A search warrant commands the person executing it to search the place or person particularly described in it, and to seize the instruments, articles or things particularly described in it.
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All necessary and reasonable force may be used to enter a building or property to execute a search warrant.
Entering without knocking. A court may authorize entry without first knocking and announcing only on a showing of specific facts that, if notice were given, a weapon would be used against the officer or another, or evidence would be destroyed. Before such a warrant issues, the officer attests to the body camera arrangements the section requires.
How a warrant is served is also measured by the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has held that whether officers knocked and announced their presence before entering is part of whether the entry was reasonable, and that the knock and announce principle forms part of that analysis rather than being a rigid rule without exceptions. Those holdings are a floor: a state's own constitution and statutes can give more protection than they do, never less.
Sources for this section (3)
- 725 ILCS 5/108-7 — Command of search warrant
- 725 ILCS 5/108-8 — Use of force in execution of search warrant
- Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927 (1995) — Knocking and announcing is part of whether an entry is reasonable
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Illinois attorney.