System will help ease obtaining warrants
Search warrants and DUI blood-draw warrants will be issued faster and more efficiently with the new electronic warrant that went live Thursday at the USU Police Department, said Capt. Steve Milne.
Milne said USUPD will greatly benefit from the new method, called the “e-warrant,” because it makes submitting for a warrant and getting one approved much faster.
Chief Criminal Deputy Tony Baird of the Cache County Attorney’s Office said he was surprised USU police was just getting started with this new program, but Milne said there wasn’t as much of a demand for USU to get it.
“It was just a matter of getting the training and getting it done,” Milne said. “We don’t deal with near the volume of what they (Logan City Police) do on a daily basis. So it wasn’t killing us that we didn’t have it.”
Officers who feel they definitely have probable cause for a warrant during the late hours of the night will find it significantly easier to expedite the process, he said.
The most common use for the e-warrant, he said, would most likely be for suspicious odors in which calls are made concerning possible marijuana use.
“Maybe a case has developed in the evening of stolen property, like a laptop computer,” Milne said. “Now what we can do is say we want a search warrant for a laptop computer.”
Logan City Police have been using the e-warrant for roughly two years, Baird said. The system makes it easier for the officer because they don’t have to track down a judge in the middle of the night.
Capt. Tyson Budge of the Logan City Patrol Division said an officer can use either a smart phone or the computer in their patrol car to access the secured, web-based system. Before, the officers would use a phone to call the judge.
“Basically it’s replacing the old telephonic search warrant,” Budge said. “A defense lawyer came up with this because he found a state law that negated telephonic warrants because there was no signature from the judge.”
Milne said there was also a case in Utah in which a drunk driver was found at the scene of an accident, unconscious, and officers drew blood without a warrant. The driver’s lawyers fought the blood draw in court but still lost.
He said to take blood without a warrant there must be probable cause or circumstances that could lead to the loss of evidence within the time it takes to get a warrant. The case precipitated the creation of the e-warrant.
“Now the judges rotate on-call and they have a computer, a Blackberry or a phone that’s set up to do it,” Budge said. “They receive these probable cause statements electronically, so if it’s two in the morning or two in the afternoon they just send it electronically.”
Milne said all of the officers for USUPD convened on Wednesday for a one-hour training session. They reviewed a detailed PowerPoint presentation which explained the process step-by-step.
Another thing the e-warrant will help to minimize is violations regarding the scope of a warrant and searches done without warrants, Budge said. An attorney is also on-call to answer questions about the strength of the probable cause in a given case.
“It has made it a lot more accurate and easier to defend,” Budge said, concerning how well a warrant would hold up in court. “And the prosecutors, I’m sure they love it as well.”
Baird said with the more solid e-warrant, the burden changes hands. The defense would have to prove there was not enough probable cause; there are fewer loopholes.
Ultimately, Baird said, the e-warrant is another way of bolstering a citizen’s rights, keeping officers honest and upholding due process of law, which is meant to ensure a fair trial for everyone.
“We can still type up a search warrant and go find a judge, give it to him and actually have him physically sign it,” Budge said. “It’s obviously a lot more time consuming, especially to the suspects because then they’re all kind of detained.”
The average anticipated wait time with the e-warrant program is approximately 20 minutes, Milne said. He was told by a colleague in another department who has been using the system the current turnaround time is usually 10 minutes.
No new hardware was necessary to implement the e-warrant program, Milne said. The department plans to install printers in all patrol cars with recently allocated grant money. He said this way they can submit and print the warrant right from the car.
“It’s progressively stopped a lot of travel, a lot of paper and a lot of tree-killing. It’s pretty slick,” Budge said. “The guys love it, I know the judges really love it and I know the prosecutors do, so it’s a good tool.”
Milne said the officers at the USUPD are excited to get familiar with the new program and start using it. He said he is not sure if arrest rates will go up, but he thinks the department’s efficiency will increase.
– dan.whitney.smith@aggiemail.usu.edu