US Marshal Task Forces, Warrant Time Restrictions, Good Faith

 I'm Adam Richardson, and this is the Writer Detective Bureau,

the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime related fiction. Happy New Year and welcome to episode 128 where you're going to find answers to questions about how to believably create non. Human fugitive task forces, what the deal is with warrants having a restriction on the time of day it can be served, and what happens if there's a mistake in the warrant paperwork.

So our first question comes from B. Who writes Good afternoon, Adam first. I love your podcast and it's helped me to flesh out the book I'm writing in ways I'd not thought of before. Thank you for all your hard work on this. Let me start by giving a bit of information on my book. It's an urban fantasy slash mystery where the magical mythical exists in the real world.

Only hidden. I'm attempting to keep it grounded in as much reality as I can, and I wanna get detail right when possible. My story is centered on an unknown criminal who has crossed state lines to use local teens to commit crimes several times. They're non-human and they have magic, making it extremely hard for the human police to catch them.

The non-human community does have its own policing force. Who work with them often. Here's the question. I know the FBI often works with task forces, but do the US marshals, if so, can one FBI or Marshall be assigned semi permanently to one? And I'm assuming you mean a task force here, uh, that travels to catch the unknown criminal if his or her crimes are identifiable through signature style evidence left behind.

Would it be the fbi? Only if she or he has murdered in several states, teens taken from elsewhere. I'm trying to work out how a liaison would work for either one on a task force, which is required to travel for a serial killer cult or gang leader type fugitive. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for the question B and what a fun one to answer.

Let's start with explaining how federal task forces typically work and which agencies have them. And yes, the US Marshals do have task forces, as do the F B I and the D E A. In fact, the F B I has more than one type of task force. The key thing to understand about task forces is that they exist to handle a specific type of problem, A problem that Congress has identified as deserving federal funding to combat that problem could be counterterrorism.

Human trafficking, violent street gangs, drug trafficking, uh, in an area with a disproportionately higher density, um, like border areas. Or it could be capturing fugitives that have already been indicted by a federal grand jury. Federal law enforcement agencies have their own mandates as to which sections of the US code typically sections in, uh, title 18 that are they, that each agency is responsible for investigating.

So the FBI has joint terrorism task forces to work counter-terrorism. They have child exploitation and human trafficking tasks, forces to work HT cases, and for clarity's sake. That is the singular name of the task force, the F B I, child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Um, the F B I also has the violent f FBI violent gang and Safe Streets task force to go after hardcore street gangs as well.

The DEA has Haida. H I D T A, which stands for High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and EF O C D E T F, which stands for Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. So Haida and EF Taskforce that obviously go after drug trafficking organizations. And yes, the US Marshal service has a fugitive or has multiple fugitive task forces, which hunt fugitives that are wanted typically for federal crimes.

In hat tip real quick to be who posed this question for properly spelling Marshall. I did once see a letter penned by a US Marshall correcting someone's erroneous spelling of Marshall, which I hope will help some of you out there. Uh, the letter said, now I'm paraphrasing here, but Marshall is spelled with one L as in Angel.

Not with two Ls like hell. That definitely gave me a chuckle and serves as a good reminder that the US Marshals are spelled M A R S H A L. I did have the chance to interview my friend and author, Mark Cameron, who is a retired chief deputy u s Marshal, and now writes a series of books about Deputy US marshals in Alaska, which are the Arla cutter novels.

If you're watching this on YouTube, actually they're right behind me on my bookshelf. Uh, great series. I love those books. Uh, and Mark also writes the Jack Ryan novels for the Tom Clancy Estate. Now, the reason why I bring that up is during that interview, mark talked about what makes the US Marshals different from other federal law enforcement agencies.

So unlike F B I special agents or d e a, special agents or irs criminal investigation special agents, They are all limited in scope to their section of applicable US code, meaning the scope of the d e A special agents are to drug related cases. The US Marshals do not have special agent status, meaning they're not limited to the scope of the US code.

They can enforce. Mark explained that the Marshall Service was created as the federal version of a sheriff. Sheriffs are the head law enforcement agencies of counties here in the United States, and one of the key powers of the Marshall Service, much like a county sheriff, is their power to deputize. This is really important to understand when it comes to federal task forces because most of these federal task forces are staffed with federal, state, and local investigators.

That's what makes it a task force. The US Marshal's Fugitive Task Force here in LA is staffed with Deputy US Marshals working right alongside. Los Angeles Sheriff's detectives, LAPD detectives, who you know, both of those technically are not feds. They're local cops sworn to enforce California state laws.

But when they're assigned to the federal task force, the Marshall Service swears them in as special Deputy US Marshals. They're cross sworn to enforce federal law as well as the state law. They're already sworn to enforce. Pretty cool, huh? But since the US Marshall Service is the only federal agency empowered with the ability to deputize someone to enforce federal law, that means that the San Diego Police Department detective that is assigned to A D E A EF organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task force, um, even if there isn't anyone from the Marshall Service working in that task force.

That San Diego PD detective will have federal credentials that say she is a special deputy US Marshall, and therefore is allowed to investigate and enforce federal drug law while assigned to that d e A task force. So I hope that makes sense. Okay, so now we have that scenario covered. Going back to BE'S fictional scenario, we know.

There is a non-human police force, let's call it the N H P D non-Human Police Department. Um, like let's assume that the N H P D is not a federal agency. Then that N H P D detective would be cross sworn through the Marshall Service as a special deputy US marshal to work on an F B I task force or a US Marshals fugitive task force.

Now, as the world builder, I would assume that this non-human policing issue is a nationwide or worldwide problem, albeit one the general public is not aware of. So I'd create a small federal, non-human law enforcement agency kinda like. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith and men in black, right? So they would already be sworn in as federal agents not needing the cross sworn status from the marshals because they're already a sworn federal law enforcement officer or special agent.

You just farm them out to the relevant task force. This is actually pretty common using the d e A task force. As an example. San Diego and its border with Mexico is a hotbed of drug trafficking activity. Um, but it's common to have d e a special agents. C B P, uh, customs and Border Patrol Agents, H S I, Homeland Security Investigations, uh, special agents and San Diego PD detectives Chula Vista PD detectives, San Diego Sheriff's Detectives all working together in that D e A Haida Task Force.

So having other feds, meaning federal agents from other agencies working on a d e A task force is pretty normal and would work if you put a non-human fed on an F B I or a Marshalls task force. Now it's worth noting the distinction between what an FBI I or d E A task force does and a US marshal's fugitive task force does.

In the case of the FBI, I or d e A task force, they are out investigating the crimes they're putting in the work to identify and criminally charged these suspects, meaning they're building a case. Developing evidence and bringing that case to the US attorney for prosecution, ultimately leading to a federal grand jury indictment.

Essentially an arrest warrant for the suspect, and then the case goes forward in federal court and yes, that F B I or D E A task force can go out and serve those arrest warrants, arresting their bad guys and taking 'em into federal custody. But in the case of the US Marshall's Fugitive Task Force, uh, their task force is solely focused on capturing those that have already been federally indicted.

The Fugitive task force is not out there building a criminal case that has already been done by another agency. So if you want your story to revolve around solving the crime, your best bet is to assign your non-human investigator to an FBI I Task Force or your secret non-human, federal law enforcement agencies starts up their own federal task force and brings in FBI I special agents and Deputy US Marshals as task force members themselves to handle these investigations and catch these non-human criminals.

And one last thing, these task forces in reality, Are location based. So if you're assigned to the border area in San Diego and all of a sudden part of your investigation leads to Miami, Florida, your task force members are not jumping on a plane. They're reaching out to their counterparts on a similar task force in Miami.

Or if there isn't a task force there, let's say it's the upper peninsula of Michigan on the Canadian border, they're reaching out to the local FBI office to handle whatever it is that needs doing there. But remember that the reality of how these things work, um, that shouldn't be. The focus, your reader will want your protagonist to make that trip.

So do what's best for your story rather than how real feds are restricted to farming things out to counterparts in other areas of the country or the world. So I hope this helps be. Thanks for the great question.

Our next two questions come from Christopher Kratchman, who posted this in the Writer's Detective Facebook group. I have two questions in regards to search warrants in my research, search warrants can only be ex executed during daylight hours. In fact, most jurisdictions require search warrants to be executed between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM.

Why is that? And Christopher's second question is, what happens when a warrant for arrest is filled out? But the detective makes a mistake in their paperwork? Like if Adam misspelled my name on an arrest warrant. Thank you. And I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. Thank you, Christopher. Uh, yes. I got this question a little bit ago.

Uh, but I spent my Thanksgiving traveling literally by plane strains and automobiles. Yes, all three. On the same day from Lisbon, Portugal, to London, England, and my wife even found me a very festive Turkey sandwich in the fridge at the m and s inside the Gatwick Airports train station. So despite being halfway around the world, I got my Turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce wedged between two cold.

Pieces of bread. The giant can of beer really helped wash it down on the train though. Uh, you are correct, Christopher, that search warrants in the US can only be served during daytime, and the specific times can vary based upon the state and the type of warrant. In California, a search warrant can only be served between 7:00 AM.

Not 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM according to California penal code Section 1533. For whatever reason, California is more restrictive in its service times, uh, but under federal law, specifically, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, title eight, rule 41, daytime is defined as being between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM.

Local time. Similarly, misdemeanor arrest warrants can be served at the suspect's residence between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM according to eight 40 of the California penal code. And it's worth noting that eight 40 PC allows for felony arrests to be made at any time of the day or night. So there's a one hour difference between an arrest warrant and a search warrant.

At least in California, these rules exist through the court's interpretation of what would be considered a reasonable search in accordance with the fourth amendment. Now that said, the affiant swearing to the contents of a warrant affidavit. So if I'm the affiant swearing to the contents of my warrant affidavit, I can attempt to provide the court with good cause as to why I should be allowed to serve that search warrant or misdemeanor arrest warrant outside of those daylight hours.

In other words, a standard search warrant or a misdemeanor arrest warrant can only be served in that 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM window based upon probable cause, right? But if I really need to serve the warrant outside of those hours, I can do so, but only if I provide the court good cause, and the judge agrees.

Now we call that a night service endorsement, and there's usually a checkbox next to the judge's signature that either approves or denies a night service request. So to get that night service endorsement, I have to explain why we need night service and specifically provide that good cause justification in the affidavit, it is not automatic.

That justification might look something like, based upon my observations during surveillance, and based upon interviews with informants that know the suspect, the suspect is routinely armed with firearms. Whenever he's awake, he has a history of committing violent crimes and he surrounds himself with.

Other gang members that are also known to be armed. Your affiant believes that service of the arrest warrant or the search warrant during nighttime hours when the suspect is likely asleep and not in the presence of other armed suspects will lead to the safest, most peaceful outcome for the suspect and the officers involved in the service of the warrant.

The key thing here is that you must be able to truthfully articulate this good cause in your affidavit. Otherwise, the judge will not endorse the warrant for night service. Let's say you're serving this warrant on a bank for our banking records, and the bank is obviously closed at four o'clock in the morning.

You're going to be very hard pressed to have a judge agree that you need night service for that search warrant.

Christopher's next question was, what happens when a warrant for arrest is filled out but the detective makes a mistake in the paperwork? Like if I misspelled Christopher's name on an arrest warrant? The answer is a bit technical, uh, which I'll explain in a second, but the short answer is that it won't really matter.

The technical answer is that your attorney may argue that the arrest warrant was not valid because you aren't the one named on the warrant or in the case of a search warrant, let's say there's a typo on the address. I wrote Apartment one, but you actually live in apartment one a. Your attorney might argue that my warrant was for apartment one, which is not where you live, and therefore I did not have a legal right to enter even with my search warrant, and therefore any evidence I found should not be ad admitted as evidence, which is what we refer to as the exclusionary rule, the courts will weigh whether my actions.

Were conducted in good faith and there is a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule. So let me read what Cornell Law has to say about the good faith exception, an exception to the exclusionary rule, barring the use at trial of evidence obtained pursuant to an unlawful search and seizure. If officers had reasonable good faith belief that they were acting according to legal authority, such as.

Relying on a search warrant that is later found to have been legally defective, the illegally seized evidence is admissible under this rule. Now, I realize your question was specific to an arrest warrant, but an arrest warrant is technically a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, albeit the seizure of a person, um, rather than evidence.

But either way, the good faith exception would still apply. I was actually involved in a case where I caught a federal fugitive while I was on a federal task force, and when he appeared before the magistrate, The federal Magistrate, he argued that the arrest warrant was invalid because he always spells his name in all capital letters and the warrant had his name with only the first letter of each name in capitals.

Therefore, it was not a valid arrest warrant. The federal magistrate was not amused, and I suspect setting that tone at the arraignment did not bode well for the rest of his proceedings in that courtroom. Huge thank you to my Patreon patrons, my coffee club patrons, and my silver cuff link patrons and Gold Shield patrons, Deborah Dunbar from Deborah dunbar.com.

CC Jameson from CC jameson.com. Larry Darter, Natalie Barelli, Craig Kingsman of Craig kingsman.com. Robert Mendenhall of Robert j mendenhall.com. Marco Carocari of marcocarocari.com. Rob Kerns of KnightsfallPress.com and Kayleigh. Thank you for your ongoing support of the podcast. You can find links to all of my patrons work by going to writers detective.com/128.

And if you'd like to support the show for as little as $2 per month, check out Writers detective.com/patreon, PAT R E O N. Happy New Year. Thank you so much for listening this week. If you have any questions, send them to me by going to writers detective.com/podcast. Thanks again. Happy New Year and write well.