On September 1, 2022, the Iowa Judicial Branch’s Electronic Search Warrant Pilot Project expanded statewide. In 2017, the Iowa legislature amended Iowa Code chapter 808 to allow the transmission of an application for and issuance of a search warrant by electronic means. In April 2018, the Iowa State Court Administrator established an advisory committee with the goal of developing a new process for law enforcement and judicial officers to complete a search warrant application and issuance electronically. The committee made recommendations to implement the new process and the judicial branch began the pilot project in four rural counties in April 2020.
The statewide expansion of electronic search warrants will improve services in Iowa’s most rural counties. Prior to the electronic system, a law enforcement officer would have to locate a judicial officer to sign a search warrant. During normal business hours, they might meet at the county courthouse to complete the paperwork, but for calls coming for search warrants on nights and weekends, the law enforcement officer or judicial officer may have to drive upwards of 45 minutes each way to someone’s home or a police station to complete the search warrant process. Judge James Malloy, Boone County, said in an interview for the Iowa Judicial Branch podcast, In the Balance, “I can remember one Christmas being out shopping and I got a call for a search warrant, and we met in a Target parking lot.”
With the new electronic search warrant process, neither law enforcement officers nor judicial officers need to meet in person to complete the process. Law enforcement officers can use the same search warrant template as before, but instead of printing it off and driving to meet the judicial officer, it is delivered to the judicial officer’s judicial email inbox. The law enforcement officer will then call to alert the judicial officer of the search warrant application, and the judicial officer will swear in the law enforcement officer over the phone as they review the application, add any necessary supplemental information to the endorsement page, and then, if everything is in order, sign the search warrant by selecting a few places on the document and clicking “Finish.” Once completed, the search warrant will automatically be sent back to the law enforcement officer. A paper search warrant typically took between thirty minutes and two hours to complete. An electronic search warrant takes only five to ten minutes of a judicial officer’s time.
Electronic search warrants allow law enforcement officers and judicial officers to respond faster to urgent matters, especially in rural areas. A judicial officer simply needs access to their judicial email account, which can be accessed on a work laptop or by contacting JBIT to install a work email inbox on a phone or tablet, making it quick and efficient to review a search warrant application and issue a search warrant during off hours. If you are a judicial officer wanting to utilize electronic search warrants, contact JBIT via JB Connect to get started.