Help | Application for Search Warrant

For the affiant

How this works

This office drafts AOC-CR-119 search warrants and SCSO affidavits in the form a magistrate expects to see. The wizard only asks what this job needs. Your Honor checks whether the facts support every box you ticked. Nothing here is a substitute for reading the packet before you swear to it.

Begin a new application Open a training packet

Start here

Pick the job, not a blank form

The first screen is “What are you doing?” The rest of the packet follows that path — no house on a Snapchat warrant, no magistrate signature boxes until you print.

House or property
Residence, curtilage, a drug pattern, or ICAC electronics still in the house. You get Place, people, and cars.
Person
No address. Buccal / DNA language is already on. Describe the person, not a structure.
Vehicle
One described car — not every vehicle on a curtilage. House screens stay off.
Phone or computer we already have
Evidence locker / seized device. Premises and cars stay off. AOC-CR-119 checks Other.
Records from a company
Hospital, bank, Snap, carrier, ISP, geofence, search-term, or telematics. Custodian and account — no house.
Court order
PRTT, historical cell, tower dump, pole camera, tracking. Superior Court application and proposed order, not AOC-CR-119.

A house search splits further: residence / general crime, drug search (fill-in buys and CSI), or ICAC / electronics still in the house (CyberTip, IP, subscriber).

In re: probable cause

Your Honor

A magistrate-style review that runs on this computer. It does not send the printed packet anywhere. Each wizard step lights green (complete), amber (needs work), or red (needs more). Gold ring is the page you are on.

Items, places, people, DNA, biometrics, and no-knock requests have to appear in the statement of facts — not only as a checked box on the cover. If the Court has questions, the panel lists them in plain language.

Use Fill the gaps only from notes you actually have. Drafting will not invent a buy, a CI, or an address you did not supply.

Affidavit

Tell the case, then read every sentence

On Facts, talk like you are briefing a sergeant — dates, what you saw, who was there, why this place. Scratch notes never print. Chrome and Edge can take dictation.

Draft affidavit language

Turns those notes into first-person affidavit voice. You must put it on the packet yourself after you read it. Gaps that cannot be filled from your notes stay listed — they are not papered over.

Drug fill-in facts

On a drug search, say how many controlled buys, who made them, and whether you also have CSI information. The blanks morph to match, and the statement of facts rewrites. You can still edit every sentence after that.

ICAC / CyberTip

Tip number, IP, subscriber, and a court-safe file summary. Do not paste graphic descriptions onto the packet.

Special authority

Biometric unlock, buccal swab, and no-knock are checkboxes that inject clause language. Your Honor still asks whether the facts support them. Biometric language does not compel a passcode.

Discovery redaction lives here too: mark a juvenile or a CI, or add aliases so a discovery copy can print placeholders instead of the true name.

Attachment

Item library

Check what this warrant should authorize. Mix packs — drugs, phones, proceeds, SANE files, geofence records — then rewrite any line. Suggested packs follow the charges and the path you picked.

Paragraph or numbered format is a print choice. Your Honor will still ask whether each category is explained in the facts. Custom items are for what the library does not already cover.

Where

Place, people, and cars

Start typing a Stanly County address. Suggestions and driving directions are from the Sheriff's Office at 223 S 2nd St, Albemarle — not a blank “how to get there” box.

Structure description, extra locations, and (when the path includes them) persons and vehicles belong on those screens. Mark a person juvenile if the identity should stay off a discovery copy.

A seized-device warrant describes make, color, IMEI, and where it sits in evidence — not a street address.

Records warrants name the custodian, the account or username, the date range, and how you will serve it. Freeze-in-lieu-of-seizure is for funds that may move.

Cover & print

The packet the magistrate sees

Packet is a filled AOC-CR-119 cover and the affidavit — not a screenshot of the wizard. Caption, court division, and issuing official are set here. Signature, date, and time stay blank for the person who takes the oath.

Court original prints the full application.
Discovery (redacted) applies the alias vault and juvenile flags so protected names do not go out in discovery.
Optional blank AOC-CR-206 for handwriting the inventory after service. You can copy seizure items onto it, or leave it empty for the scene.
Operational plan is briefing only — times, hazards, roster, nearest hospital. It stays off the court packet. Print it separately when the team needs one.

File

Training packets

Four SAMPLE-26-… warrants live in the app so you can see a finished path without using a real OCA. They are not saved in the office file. Open one, walk the steps, then start your own.

This office

Investigators, statutes, and sharing

Investigator bank

Not logins — a shared roster. Each person keeps one “me” statement, training, and a signature. Everyone in the office sees the same list.

Open investigators

General Statutes

Search headings from ncleg.gov HTML (unofficial). Confirm charging language before you file. From Case you can add a section onto the warrant.

Search statutes

Working together

Copy the warrant link so another investigator can open the same draft, see which step you are on, and leave a note. Saved warrants are in the office file for everyone; live Share rooms are still in-the-moment.

Before you swear

What this will not do for you

Drafting will not invent facts. Your Honor is a checklist, not the magistrate. Statute search is not the annotated code. An operational plan is not part of the court file.

Read the packet. If a sentence is wrong, change it. You are the affiant.