Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 968 - Commencement of criminal proceedings.
968.13 - Search warrant; property subject to seizure.

968.13 Search warrant; property subject to seizure.
(1) A search warrant may authorize the seizure of the following:
(a) Contraband, which includes without limitation because of enumeration lottery tickets, gambling machines or other gambling devices, lewd, obscene or indecent written matter, pictures, sound recordings or motion picture films, forged money or written instruments and the tools, dies, machines or materials for making them, and controlled substances, as defined in s. 961.01 (4), and controlled substance analogs, as defined in s. 961.01 (4m), and the implements for smoking or injecting them. Gambling machines or other gambling devices possessed by a shipbuilding business that complies with s. 945.095 are not subject to this section.
(b) Anything which is the fruit of or has been used in the commission of any crime or of a violation of s. 346.63 or a local ordinance in conformity therewith.
(c) Anything other than documents which may constitute evidence of any crime or of a violation of s. 346.63 or a local ordinance in conformity therewith.
(d) Documents which may constitute evidence of any crime, if probable cause is shown that the documents are under the control of a person who is reasonably suspected to be concerned in the commission of that crime under s. 939.05 (2).
(2) In this section, “documents" includes, but is not limited to, books, papers, records, recordings, tapes, photographs, films or computer or electronic data.
History: 1971 c. 219; 1979 c. 81; 1995 a. 11, 448; 2015 a. 183.
An adversary hearing is not necessary for the seizure of a limited quantity of obscene material as evidence but is necessary before more than evidentiary copies are seized. State ex rel. Howard v. O'Connell, 53 Wis. 2d 248, 192 N.W.2d 201 (1971).
“Contraband" under sub. (1) (a) is not limited to items that are per se illegal; it also encompasses items used, acquired, or transferred illegally, including money. Jones v. State, 226 Wis. 2d 565, 594 N.W.2d 738 (1999), 97-3306.
Future electronic data generated by a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device is not “electronic data” under the control of the individual as the term is used in sub. (2). State v. Pinder, 2018 WI 106, 384 Wis. 2d 416, 919 N.W.2d 568, 17-0208.
NOTE: See also the notes to article I, section 11, of the Wisconsin Constitution.

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