Search and Seizure — search warrants — unreasonable delay

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Search and Seizure — search warrants — unreasonable delay

A 6-day delay in securing a search warrant for a phone does not render the seizure of the phone unreasonable for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

“After seizing an item without a warrant, an officer must make it a priority to secure a search warrant that complies with the Fourth Amendment. This will entail diligent work to present a warrant application to the judicial officer at the earliest reasonable time. We find that this standard was met here and that the six-day delay was not so unreasonable as to violate the Constitution. Burgard argues that this outcome could ‘give authorities license to retain seized property for long periods of time merely because they chose not to devote a reasonable amount of resources and sufficient experienced personnel’ to the task of obtaining warrants. Given the fact-specific nature of these inquiries, we think these fears are overblown. It remains possible that a police department’s failure to staff its offices adequately or to give officers sufficient resources to process warrant applications could lead to unreasonable delays. But this case does not present that sort of egregious abdication of duties.”

Affirmed.

11-1863 U.S. v. Burgard

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Herndon, J., Wood, J.