19.2-72 - When it may issue; what to recite and require.

§ 19.2-72. When it may issue; what to recite and require.

On complaint of a criminal offense to any officer authorized to issuecriminal warrants he shall examine on oath the complainant and any otherwitnesses, or when such officer shall suspect that an offense punishableotherwise than by a fine has been committed he may, without formal complaint,issue a summons for witnesses and shall examine such witnesses. A writtencomplaint shall be required whenever practicable, if the complainant is not alaw-enforcement officer. If upon such examination such officer finds thatthere is probable cause to believe the accused has committed an offense, suchofficer shall issue a warrant for his arrest, except that no magistrate mayissue an arrest warrant for a felony offense upon the basis of a complaint bya person other than a law-enforcement officer or an animal control officerwithout prior consultation by the magistrate with the attorney for theCommonwealth or, if no attorney for the Commonwealth is available, withoutprior consultation with a law-enforcement agency having jurisdiction over thealleged offense. The warrant shall (i) be directed to an appropriate officeror officers, (ii) name the accused or, if his name is unknown, set forth adescription by which he can be identified with reasonable certainty, (iii)describe the offense charged with reasonable certainty, (iv) command that theaccused be arrested and brought before a court of appropriate jurisdiction inthe county, city or town in which the offense was allegedly committed, and(v) be signed by the issuing officer. The warrant shall require the officerto whom it is directed to summon such witnesses as shall be therein named toappear and give evidence on the examination. But in a city or town having apolice force, the warrant shall be directed "To any policeman, sheriff orhis deputy sheriff of such city (or town)," and shall be executed by thepoliceman, sheriff or his deputy sheriff into whose hands it shall come or bedelivered. A sheriff or his deputy may execute an arrest warrant throughoutthe county in which he serves and in any city or town surrounded thereby andeffect an arrest in any city or town surrounded thereby as a result of acriminal act committed during the execution of such warrant. The venue forthe prosecution of such criminal act shall be the jurisdiction in which theoffense occurred.

(Code 1950, § 19.1-91; 1960, c. 366; 1975, c. 495; 1991, c. 420; 2000, c.170; 2007, c. 412; 2009, cc. 291, 344; 2010, c. 240.)