CPL § 690.25

Search warrants; to whom addressable and by whom executable · as in force on May 31, 2026

§ 690.25 Search warrants; to whom addressable and by whom executable.

1. A search warrant must be addressed to a police officer whose geographical area of employment embraces or is embraced or partially embraced by the county of issuance. The warrant need not be addressed to a specific police officer but may be addressed to any police officer of a designated classification, or to any police officer of any classification employed or having general jurisdiction to act as a police officer in the county.

2. A police officer to whom a search warrant is addressed, as provided in subdivision one, may execute it pursuant to its terms anywhere in the county of issuance or an adjoining county, and he may execute it pursuant to its terms in any other county of the state in which it is executable if (a) his geographical area of employment embraces the entire county of issuance or (b) he is a member of the police department or force of a city located in such county of issuance.

Official sourcehttps://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/690.25

In plain English

A search warrant must be directed to police with the required connection to the county of issuance.

(1) It may name a police classification rather than an individual, but the officer’s employment area must overlap the issuing county, or the officer must work or have general police jurisdiction there.
(2) An addressed officer may execute it in the issuing or adjoining county. The officer may execute it in another county where the warrant is valid only if the officer’s employment area covers the whole issuing county or the officer belongs to a city police force in that county. ★

Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.

In print

This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 2 — The Court Officer: Criminal Procedure Law; Volume 2 — Your Career: Criminal Procedure in Plain English.