No-knock warrant

In the United States, a no-knock warrant is a warrant issued by a judge that allows law enforcement to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents, such as by knocking or ringing a doorbell. In most cases, law enforcement will identify themselves just before they forcefully enter the property. It is issued under the belief that any evidence they hope to find can be destroyed during the time that police identify themselves and the time they secure the area, or in the event where there is a large perceived threat to officer safety during the execution of the warrant.
Use of no-knock warrants has increased substantially over time. By one estimate, there were 1,500 annually in the early 1980s whereas by 2010 there were 60,000–70,000 no-knock or quick-knock raids conducted by local police annually, the majority of which were looking for marijuana.
Amid nationwide protests in response to the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, there were extensive calls to end no-knock warrants. Critics argue that no-knock warrants were prone to lead to deadly use of force by police and the deaths of innocent people. No-knock warrants also conflict with the right to self-defense, "stand-your-ground" laws, and Castle Doctrine which explicitly permit the use of deadly force against intruders.
Currently, Florida, Oregon and Virginia ban no-knock warrants. Thirteen states have laws explicitly permitting no-knock warrants, and the remaining states issue them based on a judge's discretion.
History.
The use of no-knock warrants is a product of the country's "war on drugs" launched by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, and which gained momentum in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. It is associated with the militarization of police.
Legal authority.
English common law has required law enforcement to knock-and-announce since at least "Semayne's case" (1604), and in "Miller v. United States" (1958), the Supreme Court of the United States recognized that police must give notice before making a forced entry. In the U.S. federal criminal law, the rule generally requiring knock-and-announce is codified at 18 U.S.C § 3109.
The 1963 Supreme Court ruling Ker v. California set a precedent in favor of forcible police entries involving drugs out of concern that evidence could be destroyed. However, in "Wilson v. Arkansas" (1995) the Court created an exception to prevent the destruction of evidence. Richard v. Wisconsin in 1997 sought to add more clarification, allowing for no-knock searches when police have "a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing their presence, under the particular circumstances, would be dangerous or futile, or that it would inhibit the effective investigation of the crime by, for example, allowing the destruction of evidence," according to the ruling. Both the 1995 and 1997 rulings allowed local and state judges a lot of discretion in determining what constitutes “reasonable suspicion.”
In "Hudson v. Michigan" (2006) the Court held by a 5–4 vote that the exclusionary rule does not require the suppression of evidence police seize during an illegal forced entry.
According to the United States Department of Justice:
Federal judges and magistrates may lawfully and constitutionally issue "no-knock" warrants where circumstances justify a no-knock entry, and federal law enforcement officers may lawfully apply for such warrants under such circumstances. Although officers need not take affirmative steps to make an independent re-verification of the circumstances already recognized by a magistrate in issuing a no-knock warrant, such a warrant does not entitle officers to disregard reliable information clearly negating the existence of exigent circumstances when they actually receive such information before execution of the warrant.
No-knock warrants may be issued in every state except Oregon (prohibited by state law), Florida (prohibited by a 1994 state supreme court decision), and Virginia (prohibited through legislation passed in 2020). In Utah, a 2014 law prohibits no-knock warrants for cases involving only drug possession. Thirteen states have laws explicitly authorizing no-knock warrants, and in 20 additional states, no-knock warrants are routinely granted.
Reform.
The act of entering someone's home by surprise, often late at night or early in the morning, creates a risk of violence, especially given the prevalence of gun ownership in United States.
Proposals for reform include legislating for a checklist of conditions to be applied for all police search warrants: "with some exceptions, officers should be in uniform; they should do the raid during the day; and they shouldn't rely on out-of-date intelligence about who lives in a targeted home."
In the wake of the Breonna Taylor shooting (March 2020) and the later (May–June 2020) George Floyd protests, the Louisville Metro Council unanimously voted on June 11, 2020, for "Breonna's Law", a ban on no-knock warrants in Louisville, Kentucky. The state of Kentucky restricted but did not ban their use in a law signed on April 9, 2020.
Statistics.
The number of no-knock raids has increased from 3,000 in 1981 to more than 50,000 in 2005, according to Peter Kraska, a criminologist at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. In 2010, Kraska estimated 60,000–70,000 no-knock or quick-knock raids were conducted by local police annually, the majority of which were looking for marijuana. Raids that lead to deaths of innocent people are increasingly common; since the early 1980s, forty bystanders have been killed, according to the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
In Utah, no-knock warrants made up about 40% of warrants served by SWAT teams in 2014 and 2015, usually for drugs and usually done at night. In Maryland, 90% of SWAT deployments were to serve search warrants, with two-thirds through forced entry.
From 2010 through 2016, at least 81 civilians and 13 officers died during SWAT raids, including 31 civilians and eight officers during execution of no-knock warrants. Half of the civilians killed were members of a minority. Of those subject to SWAT search warrants, 42% are black and 12% are Hispanic. Since 2011, at least seven federal lawsuits against officers executing no-knock warrants have been settled for over $1 million.
Controversy.
No-knock warrants are controversial for various reasons. There have been cases where burglars have robbed homes by pretending to be officers with a no-knock warrant. There have been many cases where armed homeowners, believing that they are being invaded, have shot at officers, resulting in deaths on both sides. While it is legal to shoot a homeowner's dog when an officer fears for their life, there have been numerous high-profile cases in which family pets lacking the size, strength, or demeanor to attack officers have been shot, greatly increasing the risk of additional casualties in neighboring houses via overpenetrating bullets.
Case of Bounkham Phonesavanh.
On May 27, 2014, in Cornelia, Georgia, a police informant alleged that he had bought $50 of methamphetamine from Wanis Thonetheva, a 30-year-old dealer at a residence belonging to Amanda Thonetheva, his mother. The dealer did not reside at the house, which contained no drugs or weapons, though a family with four young children lived in the house. Sheriff's Deputy Nikki Autry secured a no-knock warrant after awaking a county magistrate at his home and making inaccurate sworn statements to him.
Police executed a no-knock raid at 2:25 am on May 28, with a SWAT team breaching a door with a ram and throwing a flash-bang stun grenade into a room containing a 19-month-old child. The grenade exploded inside the infant's playpen, igniting the playpen and his pillow, causing "blast burn injuries to the face and chest; a complex laceration of the nose, upper lip and face; 20% of the right upper lip missing; the external nose being separated from the underlying bone; and a large avulsion burn injury to the chest with a resulting left pulmonary contusion and sepsis".
The infant, Bounkham Phonesavanh (or "Baby Bou Bou"), was placed in a medically induced coma, and needed a series of surgeries that cost more than a million dollars. He became the subject of a lawsuit against the police department to pay for the medical bills. The legal case argued that children's toys, including a plastic child's pool, were in the yard and the packaging for the playpen the infant was sleeping in was next to the door the police breached. The lawsuit alleged that police were "plainly incompetent" for failing to realize that a child was in the room.
The search yielded no drugs, no drug dealer and no weapons; the drug dealer was arrested the next day without the use of flash-bang grenades.
The civil lawsuit was eventually settled, with the county paying $3.6 million, including approximately $1.65 million in pain and suffering. A Habersham County, Georgia, grand jury declined to indict any of the participants, but did release a strongly worded report. Federal prosecutors then secured an indictment against Deputy Autry. She was acquitted of any wrongdoing by a federal jury after a week-long trial.
Case of Breonna Taylor.
On March 13, 2020, Louisville Metro Police Department officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment after being fired upon by Kenneth Walker, Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, while executing a search warrant shortly after midnight. Although the police had received court approval for a "no-knock" entry, they did knock and announce themselves prior to breaking down the door, according to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. However, Walker claims that he only heard banging on the door and no announcement. Walker fired the first shot; Walker said he fired his gun due to not knowing the intruders were police.
Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer but the charge was dismissed in May 2020. On September 23, 2020, a grand jury indicted one officer for wanton endangerment for blindly firing shots that entered a neighbors' apartment, but no officers were charged in the death of Taylor. On October 20, 2020, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annie O'Connell ruled that grand jury records could be released, and jurors could speak to the public, after which a grand juror claimed that the grand jury had only considered the charge of wanton endangerment, and did not consider any charges related to the death of Taylor.