Sneak & Peek Warrants - Are Government Agents Breaking Into Your Place?

A sneak and peek search warrant (officially called a Delayed Notice Warrant) is a search warrant authorizing the law enforcement officers executing it to effect physical entry into private premises without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge and to clandestinely search the premises; usually, such entry requires a stealthy breaking and entering.

According to the ACLU, the PATRIOT ACT allows "law enforcement agencies to delay giving notice when they conduct a search. This means that the government could enter a house, apartment or office with a search warrant when the occupant was away, search through her property and take photographs, and in some cases seize physical property and electronic communications, and not tell her until later. Any protections afforded by a warrant are meaningless when the searching officer has complete and unsupervised discretion as to what, when and where to search and the individual owner is not provided notice so cannot assert and protect her rights." 

The Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures requires the government to both obtain a warrant and to give notice to the person whose property will be searched before conducting the search. The notice requirement enables the person whose property is to be searched to assert her Fourth Amendment rights. For example, a person with notice might be able to point out irregularities in the warrant, such as the fact that the police are at the wrong address, or that because the warrant is limited to a search for a stolen car, the police have no authority to be looking in dresser drawers."

The Oregonian (April 15, 2018) reported that "Oregon is No. 2 in nation in requests for 'sneak-and-peek' search warrants". During FY 2016 (1 Oct 15 - 30 Sep 16) there were 851 sneak and peek warrants issued in Oregon."

Although the initial rationale under the PATRIOT ACT for throwing the doors open to these searches was the need to protect the United States against terrorists, of the 15,164 delayed-notice warrants or extensions granted nationwide in 2016, only 71 — or 0.5 percent — were related to alleged terrorism. 

Matthew T. Mangino, counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C comments on Sneak and Peek warrants in a short YouTube Video, posted on April 20, 2018.