Title 19.2, Criminal Procedure

The Auditor of Public Accounts shall audit the records of all magistrates who serve any county or city when auditing the records of the district courts of such county or city or upon request of the chief district judge of the district in which such county or city is located.

A. The counties and cities served by a magistrate or magistrates shall provide suitable quarters for such magistrates, including a site for any videoconferencing and other equipment necessary to provide secure, remote access and the transmission of paperwork to such magistrates b…

Except as provided in § 19.2-56.1, search warrants, based upon complaint on oath supported by an affidavit as required in § 19.2-54, may be issued by any judge, magistrate or other person having authority to issue criminal warrants, if he be satisfied from such complaint and affi…

A. Search warrants may be issued for the search of or for specified places, things, or persons, and seizure therefrom of the following things as specified in the warrant: 1. Weapons or other objects used in the commission of crime; 2. Articles or things the sale or possession of …

No cause of action shall lie in any court against any person authorized by law to withdraw blood pursuant to a search warrant issued in accordance with § 19.2-53 when that person is acting in accordance with such warrant, except in cases of negligence in the withdrawing of blood …

No search warrant shall be issued until there is filed with the officer authorized to issue the same an affidavit of some person reasonably describing the place, thing, or person to be searched, the things or persons to be searched for thereunder, alleging briefly material facts,…

Any person having authority to issue criminal warrants who wilfully and knowingly issues a general search warrant or a search warrant without the affidavit required by § 19.2-54 shall be deemed guilty of a malfeasance.

A. The judge, magistrate, or other official authorized to issue criminal warrants shall issue a search warrant only if he finds from the facts or circumstances recited in the affidavit that there is probable cause for the issuance thereof. If a search warrant is issued for electr…

A. Any warrant sought for the search of a premises or the contents thereof belonging to or under the control of any licensed attorney-at-law to search for evidence of any crime solely involving a client of such attorney shall be issued only by a circuit court judge. Any evidence …

A. As used in this section, unless the context requires a different meaning: "Judicial officer" means a judge, magistrate, or other person authorized to issue criminal warrants. "Law-enforcement officer" shall have the same meaning as in § 9.1-101. "Tracking device" means an elec…

The warrant shall be executed by the search of the place described in the warrant and, if property described in the warrant is found there, by the seizure of the property. The officer who seizes any property shall prepare an inventory thereof, under oath. An inventory of any seiz…

If any such warrant be executed by the seizure of property, or of any other of the things aforesaid, the same shall be safely kept by the direction of such judge or court, to be used as evidence, and thereafter be disposed of as provided by law; provided, however, that any such p…

No officer of the law or any other person shall search any place, thing or person, except by virtue of and under a warrant issued by a proper officer. Any officer or other person searching any place, thing or person otherwise than by virtue of and under a search warrant, shall be…

A. No person in custodial arrest for a traffic infraction, Class 3 or Class 4 misdemeanor, or a violation of a city, county, or town ordinance, which is punishable by no more than 30 days in jail shall be strip searched unless there is reasonable cause to believe on the part of a…

A person aggrieved by an allegedly unlawful search or seizure may move the court to return any seized property and to suppress it for use as evidence. The court shall receive evidence on any issue of fact necessary to the decision of the motion. If the motion is granted by a cour…

A. As used in this section, unless the context requires a different meaning: "Unmanned aircraft" means an aircraft that is operated without the possibility of human intervention from within or on the aircraft. "Unmanned aircraft system" means an unmanned aircraft and associated e…

No search warrant, subpoena, court order, or other process shall be issued, executed, or served for the purpose of the search and seizure or production of menstrual health data, including data stored on a computer, computer network, or other device containing electronic or digita…

As used in this chapter: "Aggrieved person" means a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, electronic or oral communication or a person against whom the interception was directed; "Aural transfer" means a transfer containing the human voice at any point between and inclu…

A. Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter any person who: 1. Intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept or procures any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, electronic or oral communication; 2. Intentionally uses, endeavors to use…

A. Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter, any person who intentionally: 1. Manufactures, assembles, possesses, or sells any electronic, mechanical, or other device, knowing or having reason to know that the design of such device renders it primarily useful for…

Any electronic, mechanical or other device as defined in this chapter which is in the possession of any sheriff's office or police department of a county, city or town, or in the possession of any employee of such office, shall be under the direct control and supervision of the s…

Any electronic, mechanical or other device used, manufactured, assembled, possessed, sold, or advertised in violation of § 19.2-62 or § 19.2-63 may be seized and forfeited to the Commonwealth, and turned over to the court of record in the city or county in which it was seized and…

Whenever any wire or oral communication has been intercepted, no part of the contents of such communication and no evidence derived therefrom may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, officer, commission,…

A. (Effective until July 1, 2027) The Attorney General or Chief Deputy Attorney General, if the Attorney General so designates in writing, in any case where the Attorney General is authorized by law to prosecute or pursuant to a request in his official capacity of an attorney for…

A. Any investigative or law-enforcement officer, or police officer of a county or city, who, by any means authorized by this chapter, has obtained knowledge of the contents of any wire, electronic or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, may disclose such contents to…

A. Each application for an order authorizing the interception of a wire, electronic or oral communication shall be made in writing upon oath or affirmation to the appropriate judge of competent jurisdiction and shall state the applicant's authority to make such application. Each …

Any person whose wire, electronic, or oral communication is intercepted, disclosed, or used in violation of this chapter shall (i) have a civil cause of action against any person who intercepts, discloses, or uses, or procures any other person to intercept, disclose, or use, such…

All courts of the Commonwealth and the Attorney General shall file all reports required by 18 U.S.C.A. § 2519. The Attorney General shall file a written report with the Clerks of the Senate and House of Delegates on or before December 31 of each year setting forth the number of a…

Except as provided in this section, no person may install or use a pen register or a trap and trace device without first obtaining a court order under § 19.2-70.2. However, a court order shall not be required for use of a pen register or trap and trace device by a provider of ele…

A. An investigative or law-enforcement officer may make application for an order or an extension of an order authorizing or approving the installation and use of a pen register or a trap and trace device, in writing under oath or equivalent affirmation, to a court of competent ju…

A. A provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service, which, for purposes of subdivisions 2, 3, and 4, includes a foreign corporation that provides such services, shall disclose a record or other information pertaining to a subscriber to or customer of su…

A. Process for the arrest of a person charged with a criminal offense may be issued by the judge, or clerk of any circuit court, any general district court, any juvenile and domestic relations district court, or any magistrate as provided for in Chapter 3 (§ 19.2-26 et seq.). How…

On complaint of a criminal offense to any officer authorized to issue criminal warrants he shall examine on oath the complainant and any other witnesses, or when such officer shall suspect that an offense punishable otherwise than by a fine has been committed he may, without form…

A. In any misdemeanor case or in any class of misdemeanor cases, or in any case involving complaints made by any state or local governmental official or employee having responsibility for the enforcement of any statute, ordinance or administrative regulation, the magistrate or ot…

In any misdemeanor case or in any class of misdemeanor cases and in a Class 5 or Class 6 felony case, the chief of police of the city or county or his designee, or the sheriff or deputy sheriff of the county, if the county has no police department, in which the case is pending ma…

Law-enforcement officers as defined in § 9.1-101 and state police officers, in the course of their duties, in the investigation of any Class 3 or Class 4 misdemeanor or any traffic infraction, may, within seventy-two hours of the time of the offense, issue a subpoena to any witne…

A. 1. Whenever any person is detained by or is in the custody of an arresting officer for any violation committed in such officer's presence which offense is a violation of any county, city or town ordinance or of any provision of this Code punishable as a Class 1 or Class 2 misd…

Except as provided in § 46.2-936, any process issued against a person charged with a criminal offense shall be in duplicate and the officer serving such process shall leave a copy with the person charged.

A law-enforcement officer may execute within his jurisdiction a warrant, capias or summons issued anywhere in the Commonwealth. A jail officer as defined in § 53.1-1 employed at a regional jail or jail farm may execute upon a person being held in his jail a warrant, capias or sum…

It shall be the duty of the chief law-enforcement officer of the police department or sheriff's office, whichever is responsible for such service, in each county, town or city of the Commonwealth to submit quarterly reports to the attorney for the Commonwealth for the county, tow…

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 19.2-76, whenever a summons for a violation of a county, city or town parking ordinance is served in any county, city or town it may be executed by mailing by first-class mail a copy thereof to the address of the owner of the vehicle as shown o…

A. If any person fails to appear on the date of the return contained in the summons issued in accordance with § 19.2-76.2, then a summons shall be delivered to the sheriff of the county, city, or town or to another authorized process server for service on that person as set out i…

Whenever a person in the custody of an officer shall escape or whenever a person shall flee from an officer attempting to arrest him, such officer, with or without a warrant, may pursue such person anywhere in the Commonwealth and, when actually in close pursuit, may arrest him w…

All officers whose duties are to make arrests acting under the authority of any law of this Commonwealth or any subdivision thereof, who shall make any arrest, search or seizure on any public road or highway of this Commonwealth shall be dressed at the time of making any such arr…

Any member of a duly organized state, county or municipal peace unit of another state of the United States who enters this Commonwealth in close pursuit, and continues within this Commonwealth in such close pursuit, of a person in order to arrest him on the ground that he has com…

In any case in which an officer does not issue a summons pursuant to § 19.2-74 or § 46.2-936, a law-enforcement officer making an arrest under a warrant or capias shall bring the arrested person without unnecessary delay before a judicial officer. The judicial officer shall immed…