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This entry was published on 2014-09-22
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SECTION 530.70
Order of recognizance or bail; bench warrant
Criminal Procedure (CPL) CHAPTER 11-A, PART 3, TITLE P, ARTICLE 530
§ 530.70 Order of recognizance or bail; bench warrant.

1. A bench warrant issued by a superior court, by a district court, by
the New York City criminal court or by a superior court judge sitting as
a local criminal court may be executed anywhere in the state. A bench
warrant issued by a city court, a town court or a village court may be
executed in the county of issuance or any adjoining county; and it may
be executed anywhere else in the state upon the written endorsement
thereon of a local criminal court of the county in which the defendant
is to be taken into custody. When so endorsed, the warrant is deemed the
process of the endorsing court as well as that of the issuing court.

2. A bench warrant may be addressed to: (a) any police officer whose
geographical area of employment embraces either the place where the
offense charged was allegedly committed or the locality of the court by
which the warrant is issued; or (b) any uniformed court officer for a
court in the city of New York, the county of Nassau, the county of
Suffolk or the county of Westchester or for any other court that is part
of the unified court system of the state for execution in the building
wherein such court officer is employed or in the immediate vicinity
thereof. A bench warrant must be executed in the same manner as a
warrant of arrest, as provided in section 120.80, and following the
arrest, such executing police officer or court officer must without
unnecessary delay bring the defendant before the court in which it is
returnable; provided, however, if the court in which the bench warrant
is returnable is a city, town or village court, and such court is not
available, and the bench warrant is addressed to a police officer, such
executing police officer must without unnecessary delay bring the
defendant before an alternate local criminal court, as provided in
subdivision five of section 120.90; or if the court in which the bench
warrant is returnable is a superior court, and such court is not
available, and the bench warrant is addressed to a police officer, such
executing police officer may bring the defendant to the local
correctional facility of the county in which such court sits, to be
detained there until not later than the commencement of the next session
of such court occurring on the next business day.

2-a. A court which issues a bench warrant may attach thereto a summary
of the basis for the warrant. In any case where, pursuant to subdivision
two of this section, a defendant arrested upon a bench warrant is
brought before a local criminal court other than the court in which the
warrant is returnable, such local criminal court shall consider such
summary before issuing a securing order with respect to the defendant.

3. A bench warrant may be executed by (a) any officer to whom it is
addressed, or (b) any other police officer delegated to execute it under
circumstances prescribed in subdivisions four and five.

4. The issuing court may authorize the delegation of such warrant.
Where the issuing court has so authorized, a police officer to whom a
bench warrant is addressed may delegate another police officer to whom
it is not addressed to execute such warrant as his or her agent when:

(a) He or she has reasonable cause to believe that the defendant is in
a particular county other than the one in which the warrant is
returnable; and

(b) The geographical area of employment of the delegated police
officer embraces the locality where the arrest is to be made.

5. Under circumstances specified in subdivision four, the police
officer to whom the bench warrant is addressed may inform the delegated
officer, by telecommunication, mail or any other means, of the issuance
of the warrant, of the offense charged in the underlying accusatory
instrument and of all other pertinent details, and may request him or
her to act as his or her agent in arresting the defendant pursuant to
such bench warrant. Upon such request, the delegated police officer is
to the same extent as the delegating officer, authorized to make such
arrest pursuant to the bench warrant within the geographical area of
such delegated officer's employment. Upon so arresting the defendant, he
or she must without unnecessary delay deliver the defendant or cause him
or her to be delivered to the custody of the police officer by whom he
or she was so delegated, and the latter must then without unnecessary
delay bring the defendant before the court in which such bench warrant
is returnable.

6. A bench warrant may be executed by an officer of the state
department of corrections and community supervision or a probation
officer when the person named within the warrant is under the
supervision of the department of corrections and community supervision
or a department of probation and the probation officer is authorized by
his or her probation director, as the case may be. The warrant must be
executed upon the same conditions and in the same manner as is otherwise
provided for execution by a police officer.