BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1004|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1004
Author: Gray (D)
Amended: 5/15/13 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/18/13
AYES: Hancock, Block, De León, Knight, Liu, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/23/13 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Criminal procedure
SOURCE : Judicial Council of California
DIGEST : This bill makes technological updates to procedures
related to the judicial issuance of an arrest warrant.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. States that when a declaration of probable cause is made be a
peace officer of this state, the magistrate, if, and only if,
satisfied from the declaration that there exists probable
cause that the offense described in the declaration has been
committed and that the defendant described therein has
committed the offense, shall issue a warrant of probable
cause for the arrest of the defendant. The declaration in
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support of the warrant of probable cause for arrest shall be
a sworn statement in writing.
2. Provides that in lieu of the written declaration, the
magistrate may take an oral statement under oath under either
of the following conditions:
A. The oath shall be made under penalty of perjury and
recorded and transcribed. The transcribed statement
shall be deemed to be the declaration for the purposes
of this section, the recording of the sworn oral
statement and the transcribed statement shall be
certified by the magistrate receiving it and shall be
filed with the clerk of the court. In the alternative,
the sworn oral statement may be recorded by a certified
court reporter who shall certify the transcript of the
statement, after which the magistrate receiving it shall
certify the transcript which shall be filed with the
clerk of the court.
B. The oath is made using telephone and facsimile
transmission equipment, or made using telephone and
electronic mail, under all of the following conditions:
(1) The oath is made during a telephone
conversation with the magistrate, after which the
declarant shall sign his/her declaration in support
of the warrant of probable cause for arrest. The
declarant's signature shall be in the form of a
digital signature if electronic mail is used for
transmission to the magistrate. The proposed
warrant and all supporting declarations and
attachments shall then be transmitted to the
magistrate utilizing facsimile transmission
equipment or electronic mail.
(2) The magistrate shall confirm with the
declarant the receipt of the warrant and the
supporting declarations and attachments. The
magistrate shall verify that all the pages sent
have been received, that all pages are legible, and
that the declarant's signature or, digital
signature, is acknowledged as genuine.
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(3) If the magistrate decides to issue the
warrant, he/she shall:
(a) Cause the warrant, supporting
affidavit, and attachments to be printed if
received by electronic mail.
(b) Sign the warrant.
(c) Note on the warrant the exact date
and time of the issuance of the warrant.
(d) Indicate on the warrant that the
oath of the declarant was administered orally
over the telephone. The completed warrant,
as signed by the magistrate, shall be deemed
to be the original warrant.
3. Requires the magistrate to transmit via facsimile
transmission equipment or via electronic mail, the signed
warrant to the declarant who shall telephonically acknowledge
its receipt. The magistrate shall then telephonically
authorize the declarant to write the words "duplicate
original" on the copy of the completed warrant transmitted to
the declarant and this document shall be deemed to be a
duplicate original warrant.
4. Provides that before issuing a warrant of probable cause for
arrest, the magistrate may examine under oath the person
seeking the warrant and any witness the person may produce,
take the written declaration of the person or witness, and
cause the person or witness to subscribe the declaration.
This bill:
1 Allows an oath in support of a declaration of probable cause
for arrest to be made using a telephone and computer server.
2. Provides that the declarant's signature may be in the form of
an electronic signature.
3. Allows the magistrate to subsequently print the warrant,
supporting affidavit, and attachments if received by
electronic mail or computer server.
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4. Allows the magistrate to sign an arrest warrant using a
digital signature or electronic signature if electronic mail
or computer server is used for transmission to the
magistrate.
5. Authorizes a signed arrest warrant to be transmitted by a
computer server to the declarant.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/19/13)
Judicial Council of California (source)
California District Attorneys Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, while
AB 2505 (Strickland, Chapter 98, Statutes of 2010) authorized
magistrates to receive search warrants by computer server and to
sign search warrants digitally or electronically, it did not
similarly authorize the use of electronic signature for arrest
warrants even though obtaining original signatures faces similar
challenges. Similar to the process for obtaining search
warrants prior to AB 2505, the existing process for obtaining
an arrest warrant is a lengthy process of approving, signing,
and returning a warrant to the court that can be fraught with
technical and hardware challenges such as jammed printers or
exhausting an ink cartridge in the middle of the night. Also,
even though existing law permits law enforcement to submit an
arrest warrant via email, law enforcement must still travel to
court, or if after hours, to the home of a magistrate to obtain
a signature on an arrest warrant, thus wasting time and
incurring needless travel costs.
The bill streamlines the process for obtaining signatures on
arrest warrants by amending Section 817 of the Penal Code to
permit arrest warrants to be submitted not only by e-mail, but
also by computer server, and would permit magistrates to sign
search warrants digitally or electronically. By making the
process for obtaining magistrate signatures on arrest warrants
more efficient, this change will not only bring cost savings to
court, but also to cities and counties because law enforcement
will no longer be required to travel to court, or if outside of
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regular hours, to a magistrate's home to obtain a signature on
an arrest warrant. Allowing affiants and magistrates to utilize
e-mail is a secure alternative method of transmission and
signing of arrest warrants that will give law enforcement the
flexibility and rapidity to more effectively respond to crime in
the modern world.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/23/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway,
Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Jones-Sawyer,
Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor,
Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John
A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Grove, Holden, Jones, Waldron, Vacancy,
Vacancy
JG:d 6/19/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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