Amador

A police officer had probable cause to search a house after an informant pointed it out to him. He obtained a warrant to search that house, preparing and signing the supporting affidavit himself, and he personally executed the warrant on the house the informant had shown him. The warrant’s description and address of the house to be searched differed somewhat from the description and address of the actual house. We must decide whether these differences require suppression of the evidence the officer obtained in the search.

We conclude we need not suppress the evidence under the circumstances. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which ordered the evidence suppressed.

I. Factual and Procedural History

On February 26, 1997, Detective Grant Gulickson and another City of Brea police officer executed a search warrant on a house in which defendant *391 lived. About five to six weeks earlier, an informant had pointed the house out to Detective Gulickson and another detective as the three drove by it. The other detective took notes while Detective Gulickson drove and observed the house. Detective Gulickson testified that after they drove by the house,…

I generally concur in the opinion of the court.

I write separately to note a single point of disagreement.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution expressly requires a search warrant to “particularly describ[e] the place to be searched.” (Italics added.) It impliedly requires it to accurately describe it as well. The “primary purpose” of these requirements is “to minimize the risk that officers executing search warrants will by mistake search a place other than the place intended by the [issuing] magistrate.” (2 LaFave, Search and Seizure (3d ed. 1996) Description of Place, § 4.5, p. 513.)

I agree with the other members of the court that the search warrant in this cause adequately satisfied the requirements of particular and accurate description of the placed to be searched.

But, unlike my colleagues, I would not rely on the fact that the officer who executed the search warrant happened to be the person who subscribed to the supporting affidavit and, as such, happened to know the place to be searched of his own personal knowledge, notwithstanding the inaccuracies in the warrant’s description. A search warrant’s description of the object premises is sufficiently…

A police officer had probable cause to search a house after an informant pointed it out to him. He obtained a warrant to search that house, preparing and signing the supporting affidavit himself, and he personally executed the warrant on the house the informant had shown him. The warrant's description and address of the house to be searched differed somewhat from the description and address of the actual house. We must decide whether these differences require suppression of the evidence the officer obtained in the search.

We conclude we need not suppress the evidence under the circumstances. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which ordered the evidence suppressed.

On February 26, 1997, Detective Grant Gulickson and another City of Brea police officer executed a search warrant on a house in which defendant lived. About five to six weeks earlier, an informant had pointed the house out to Detective Gulickson and another detective as the three drove by it. The other detective took notes while Detective Gulickson drove and observed the house. Detective Gulickson testified that after they drove by the house, they turned away so as not to "be…