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Homepage > Albuquerque News

Warrants Let Agents Enter Homes Without Owner
Knowing

Delayed-Notice Search Warrants Increasing

POSTED: 7:53 am MDT May 17, 2011
UPDATED: 8:06 am MDT May 18, 2011

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Sneak-And-Peek Warrants A Privacy Concern, Residents
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A special
type of government search warrant that allows authorities to search homes
without informing the owner for months is becoming more common, Target 7
has learned.

Imagine someone walking through your neighborhood, coming into your
home and rifling through your intimate belongings.

“(They) search through your home, your dresser drawers, your
computer files,” Peter Simonson, with ACLU New Mexico, said.

These search warrants don’t involve knocking on doors or any type
of warning at all. Delayed-notice search warrants, or "sneak-and-peek"
warrants, allow federal agents to enter your home without telling you
they’ve been there until months later.

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The warrants have always been around, but their use has spiked
since the War on Terror and revamped Patriot Act was signed in 2005. The
number of delayed-notice search warrants spiked nationally from nearly 700
in fiscal year 2007 to approaching close to 2,000 in 2009.

Upwards of 200 warrants and extensions approved during that same
three-year stretch came out of the 10th Circuit Court, which covers a
handful of states including New Mexico. The majority of those delayed
search warrants aren’t even for terrorism-related cases. According to the
U.S. Department of Justice’s figures, the majority of the warrants are for
drug cases.

“While billed as an anti-terror tool, (a sneak-and-peek warrant)
had no requirements on it that it precluded it from being used in standard
criminal investigations,” Simonson said.

The warrants are so secret that the New Mexico U.S. Attorney’s
Office wouldn’t go on record with Target 7 about them.

The ACLU said it expects delayed-notice warrant numbers to keep
growing each year as long as certain parts of the Patriot Act remain on
the books.

Copyright 2011 by KOAT.com. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.

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