Where and By Whom May A Warrant Be Executed?

• Jurisdiction: Maryland

VII. Where and by whom may a warrant be executed?

Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 2-103(b), provides:

A police officer may arrest a person throughout the State without limitations as to jurisdiction if: (1) a warrant has been issued against the person; (2) the police officer is participating in a joint operation created by an agreement between the primary law enforcement officers [as defined by Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 2-103(a)]; (3) the arrest occurs within one of the participating jurisdictions in accordance with the agreement; and (4) the police officer is acting in accordance with regulations that the police officer's employing unit adopts to carry out this section.

Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 2-104 delineates when a federal law enforcement officer may arrest an individual in Maryland.

A. Maryland police may execute a Maryland venue #1 warrant in Maryland venue #2 when accompanied by officers from Maryland venue #2 or by federal marshals

In Brown, 153 Md. App. at 577, the Court of Special Appeals held that officers from one venue in Maryland may execute a search warrant in another venue in Maryland when accompanied by officers from that other venue or by federal marshals. Even if a search warrant was executed invalidly, "the sanction for noncompliance would not be suppression of the evidence." Id. See also Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. §§ 2-102(b) and 2-104 Md. Code Ann., Educ. § 13-601

In Hill v. State, 134 Md. App. 327, cert. denied, 362 Md. 188 (2000), the Court of Special Appeals held:

Under Md. Code Ann., Educ. § 13-601(b)(1), the University of Maryland Police have "all the powers of a peace and police officer in this State." That authority necessarily includes the authority to apply for a search warrant. . . .

[T]here was no error committed in the execution of the search warrant [. Even though the defendant's home] was outside the concurrent jurisdiction of the University of Maryland Police[,] two Prince George's County police detectives accompanied the police to [the defendant's] residence. [Even though] the University of Maryland Police conducted the search . . . and seized the items from [his] room[, t]hat does not mean that the evidence seized was required to be suppressed. The Prince George's County detectives may have played a limited role in executing the warrant, but the University of Maryland Police nevertheless were acting under color of authority of the Prince George's County Police Department.

Id. at 343-44.

In Gattus v. State, 204...