This week I have for you examples of real world search warrants for cell phone information, DNA, electronic media and more!

Search Warrants are a huge source of open source information no one really knows about. Heck even many lawyers miss the really good stuff.

What you need to know…

1. Search Warrants are often public record.

Some search warrants may be “sealed” and some may be exempt from public records request because they are an on-going criminal investigation, but by time a private investigator has been brought onto a case, the search warrants are available through a public records request.

2. Search Warrant Applications may have even MORE information than the search warrant itself!

The application of the search warrant will have things that help establish probably cause and include things like confidential informant statements, addresses, photos, wiretap information, surveillance reports, witness names and statements and a TON more!

HUGE TIP…

3. Not all applications for search warrants are approved by judges.

This is something that’s even missed by attorneys. In their motion for discovery that may request copies of any search warrants and the applications for the search warrants, but miss the applications that were denied by the judge!

When you look at a denied application, you get to see the best information the police had to offer the judge. It’s a good indication of how the police were thinking and what information they knew and when they knew it.

Here are Search Warrant Examples from the real world.

By the way, if you want more tips like these, be sure to check out my special report If You Want to be A Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do Theses 3 Things.

You can get it right here…

UPDATE: March 14, 2017

I make no judgments about this news story, but it’s a great example of how search warrants and search warrant applications can be used to find more information.

Less then a month after my original posting, a story got huge national attention based on information gained from what I’m teaching you here!

Here’s a snip from the story:

“But I think it’s important to note that the conversation that police had with the store employees is documented in the police report which was released on November 24, 2014. The application for a search warrant and the discussion around getting a search warrant for this information is also in the same police report and ultimately a description of the content of the video is in that police report. All of which was released on November 24, 2014 as part of the release that I made that night after the grand jury returned its verdict.”

(The bold emphasis is mine.)

How pleased would your client be if you had found this? How much would it help your business if you got this level of national attention?

Take the things I teach you and use them to help yourself and others.

(Source: News story at CNN.)

UPDATE: January 13, 2018

Associated Press reporter Ken Ritter filed a story showing the information the media gained looking at affidavits filed for search warrants in the Las Vegas mass shooting of 2017.

Here’s a snippet of that story…

LAS VEGAS — FBI agents knew the gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history left behind big caches of guns, ammunition and explosives when they sought warrants to search his properties and online accounts, according to documents released Friday.

A U.S. judge in Nevada unsealed the documents showing some of what federal agents learned about Stephen Paddock in the week after the Las Vegas shooting. Prosecutors didn’t oppose the request from media organizations including The Associated Press to release affidavits that were filed to get search warrants.

They also show that agents sought the email, Facebook and Instagram accounts of Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who was in the Philippines during the Oct. 1 shooting.

Just another example of how valuable this source is!