California Criminal Defense Blog

Police informants in California provide the authorities with information that leads to search warrants, wiretaps, surveillance and the solving of crimes. The types of informants can range from random citizens who are aware of criminal activity...to agents of the police who infiltrate criminal organizations and report on their activities.

No doubt informants are a very useful and effective law enforcement tool. But when their purported information leads to search warrants and wiretaps, the privacy of the suspects gets invaded. To insure that this invasion of privacy is warranted, the law requires that standards of reliability be observed.

For example, the judge issuing the search warrant can question the informant...either through live testimony or written affidavits. Specifically, the judge looks to see whether (1) the informer has a history of providing tips that proved reliable, or (2) there is independent corroboration of the informer's story.

Continue reading "Informants Must Pass Reliability Tests" »

When police suspect that evidence of a crime may be found at a certain location, they can ask a judge to issue a California search warrant. If issued, the search warrant allows the cops to search the designated locations and seize any relevant evidence that they find.

But even when a search takes place pursuant to a warrant, that doesn't necessarily mean it will hold up in court. A good criminal defense lawyer looks behind the warrant to see if it was properly issued.

Specifically, police must present evidence to the judge to establish "probable case" before a search warrant can be legally issued. Sometimes the police present false or misleading evidence, or they rely on the word of an unreliable informant, or they fail to tell the judge the whole story (intentionally leaving out the parts that don't support their position).

Continue reading "Challenging California Search Warrants" »