Operation Policy and Procedure Notices #01/02

Date:

January 2, 2002

Subject:

Recording Access Warrants

Effective:

Immediately

Purpose:

Specifics:

1. Background 

This notice discusses the implementation of a new notation on the Department of Building's Building Information System that will record the Department's administrative access warrant activity.

The Department has been systematically obtaining administrative access warrants since late 1997. Previous to the Department obtained warrants on a case-by-case basis. As the number of warrants issued increased, it became apparent that a better way of tracking warrants was needed. The best way to accomplish this goal was to include a specific warrant notation on BIS.

2. Building Information System's (BIS) "Actions" Screen 

Therefore, a new designation was added to the actions screen of the BIS system. On any premises where the Supreme Court issued a warrant, the "WAR" notation will appear. "WAR" will be followed by the court index number of the warrant, which includes the year in which the warrant application was made. By selecting a particular "WAR" action the user can access the exact date the warrant was issued.

Additionally, if the warrant was issued, but the warrant was never executed (failure to gain access, warrant expires, etc.) the notation will be "WAR". Also, because of a lag time between the request for a warrant and its actual issuance, sometimes a warrant will be issued after access has been gained to the property. In this case, the notation will be "WAR%" If further information is needed, inquiries to the Special Enforcement Unit can be made.

3. Example 

The notation "WAR* 1234-98" would tell us the following: a warrant was issued but never executed with an index number of 1234-98. If we then selected more detail on this job, we might find out that the actual issue date of the warrant is May 19, 1998. If the warrant had been executed, one could go the BIS complaint screen and search for violations written within 10 days after the warrant was issued, in order to find out the results of the search.

4. Summary of New BIS Notation
WAR 1234-98 -- Warrant issued and executed
WAR* 1234-98 -- Warrant issued but not executed.
WAR% 1234-98 -- Warrant issued but access gained to premises before execution.