I wonder if the media was going to be waiting for his officers and it would've been a media disaster when they caught few if any because anyone with warrants had already left town or switched locations.

They track social media, smartphones, transactions with cards and such. Even accounts when they login to places like reddit and facebook. Probably even messages to and from phones and if not the metadata can reveal a ton.

Snowden revealed the the partial extent of the spying apparatus, for your safety of course, and for that they turned him into a public enemy.

"The Constitution, through the Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The Fourth Amendment, however, is not a guarantee against all searches and seizures, but only those that are deemed unreasonable under the law." Just run around it with secret courts and sealed warrants.