If someone dressed as a cop showed up at your house and showed you a Search Warrant, how would you know it’s real? Have you ever seen one? I haven’t.
IANAL, but I doubt it would be a single cop showing up at your house with a warrant; it would probably be a team consisting of a lead or supervisory detective or agent, backed with some muscle officers ready to overpower attempts to resist or deny entry and some officers who specialize in collecting evidence.
They’ll give you plenty of time to read through it while they are going through the place. Just look for the all-too-familiar Nigerian grammar and stuff like that. Should be pretty obvious by that point.
I have seen many. In appearance, it’s basically just an order signed by a judge allowing the police to search a specified location. Easy enough to fabricate, I suppose. Check the ID of the people serving it on you. Call 911 if you’re really suspicious.
BTW, you don’t get to see the affidavit outlining the reasons the judge signed the warrant, at least at the time of the search.
No raised seal or anything like that. You can get images of actual warrants on the web. It wouldn’t be hard to phony one up. If they don’t give you a receipt for everything they took, call the cops.
Is it OK if I video record everything the police are doing while they’re conducting the search? If they tell me to stop recording, do I have to comply?
Yes. During the execution of a SW/AW everyone on the premises is considered “detained”. They can order everyone to stay where they are, don’t move around, no cell phones, etc., this assures that they maintain control and order. However they can not search everyone on the scene, just because they are "on the scene’, frisks are permitted only after arrest or under Terry guidelines.
It’s funny. While I’ve signed over a hundred arrest warrants, I’ve never seen a search warrant.
I’d look for a seal but I believe a warrant can be valid even if it isn’t stamped.