If there is reason to believe any property described in the warrant is concealed on a person, what action may be taken?

• A. The officer may search the person for the property described in the warrant
• B. The officer must obtain consent before any search of a person
• C. The officer cannot search a person under any circumstances
• D. The officer may only search the premises, not the person

Answer: (C)

Warrants specify where to search and what to seize, not how to search every person associated with the case. If you suspect that an item described in the warrant is concealed on someone, that fact alone does not give authority to search the person. To search a person, you’d need a separate basis—such as the person’s voluntary consent, a lawful arrest (with a search incident to arrest), or another specific legal trigger like a stop-and-frisk under the right circumstances. Absent one of those, the officer should not search the person based solely on the warrant’s terms. The focus of the warrant is the premises and the described items, not a blanket search of individuals.