State Supreme Court Upholds Warrantless Records Search

Posted Friday, December 18, 2015 by Andrew Charles Huff

The State’s High Court just upheld a state law that allows investigators to obtain a suspect’s bank records without a warrant by using a little-known state law. The law allows police and prosecutors to obtain this information using a lesser standard than a showing of “probable cause” needed for a warrant.

The Court found that using a “special inquiry judge” proceeding normally held in secret provides adequate authority for police to obtain records even though citizens have a constitutionally protected privacy interest in them.

The Legislature created the special inquiry proceedings in 1971 after a wide ranging public corruption investigation in Seattle.