From time-to-time you will see police have executed a search warrant, but you may wonder exactly what that means. Today, we talk about judicial authorizations.
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To start, it generally means a lot of work has already been done and there is a lot more to do.
There are many types of warrants, or judicial authorizations, that allow police to search or enter, some place or thing.
There are also Orders that compel a person, company or organization to produce records or stored data they may hold. Examples are banking or cellphone records.
Authorizations don’t start investigations but rather contribute to them after work has been put in. For example, if a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) search warrant has been authorized on a house, this means an investigation is being conducted and we believe drugs are being held in that specific place.
An Information to Obtain (ITO) is the first step to a judicial authorization being granted to enter the house.
Within this document, the investigator lays out details as to why they believe on reasonable and probable grounds there will likely be evidence in the house to support CDSA charges.
The investigator has to disclose the source of each piece of information and how it relates to the request for a search warrant.
The ITO has to convince a judge or justice it meets legal reasonableness and makes sense to them showing reason and rationale.
At times, errors are made and authorization is denied, but this generally means addressing the errors or issues and then resubmitting.
Police officers writing ITOs have a pretty good understanding of the requirements needed to ensure the best chance of the authorization being granted so we just end up tweaking it and resubmitting.
If the judge or justice is satisfied the ITO meets the requirements, they authorize the search warrant or Order.
Details added to an ITO would include past dealings with the person, place or thing and any other related history specific to the reason for the requested authorization.
This could be someone’s criminal history, current outstanding charges, and more importantly, what current information the police have to show we believe something criminal is happening.
In the Sept. 5, 2024, edition of the Meridian Source I explained authorities and that almost everything a police officer does is based on an authority. Many come into play within our daily work but granted authorizations are special and usually allow us to do something more intrusive than typically authorized.
The authorizations are very specific and have limitations.
Most will specify what items we can search for, the date and time warrants/orders are valid for, if we can search outbuilding and vehicles, etc. In the case of requiring information such as cellular records, the judge or justice will set a time limit for the records to be produced.
These authorizations are very important in different investigations and often the results are essential to a prosecution.
– Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbown, is the NCO in charge of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment’s General Investigation Section. Stay tuned for future articles from the Lloydminster RCMP.
This column was originally published in the Mar. 6, 2025, edition of the Meridian Source.
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