It’s the middle of the night. Two armed men kick open the door into the house and rush inside without saying a word. It could be criminals looking to ransack one’s home. Or it could be the police acting on a no-knock search warrant.
Civil liberties activists have condemned no-knock search warrants for years, but the March death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman killed in her home by officers, has ignited a new push to get rid of them.
1. What are no-knock warrants?
No-knock warrants allow law enforcement to break into a home without identifying themselves to carry out a search warrant. These warrants must be approved by a judge who deems that the suspect could destroy evidence or harm an officer if law enforcement takes the time to identify themselves before carrying out the search warrant.
The use of no-knock warrants was first approved by the federal government in the early 1970s as law enforcement officers struggled to gather evidence from the homes of suspected drug dealers who were quick to destroy evidence before responding to the knock on their door from officers. The law on no-knock warrants was repealed after a few years because the practice had been overused by law enforcement.
Over time, court rulings and state laws have created a narrower set of instances when a no-knock warrant can be used, but many are still granted to help law enforcement crack down on suspected criminals. In 2003, New York City police officers executed an average of more than 450 no-knock warrants per month. Judges rarely deny no-knock warrant requests. A report from the Denver Post in 2000 found that judges denied five of the 163 no-knock warrant requests made in Denver.
“No-knock search warrants appear to be approved so routinely that some Denver judges have issued them even though police asked only for a regular warrant,” read the Denver Post report. “In fact, more than one of every 10 no-knock warrants issued over the past seven months was transformed from a regular warrant with just a judge’s signature.”
Law enforcement officers support the use of no-knock warrants for drug enforcement because officers, typically SWAT teams, are able to apprehend a suspected dealer and any drugs in his or her home, which can hamper the supply of drugs long-term. Under civil asset forfeiture laws, officers can seize drugs, cash, and weapons found when executing a search warrant.
2. How do officers get no-knock warrants?
There are two scenarios in which a judge will approve a no-knock warrant.
The first requires that law enforcement prove that the individual who is inside the home could be so dangerous that it could endanger the lives of officers to give the suspect any notice. In this situation, the judge is convinced that knocking on the door before busting it down, even if there are mere seconds between those two steps, could result in an officer being harmed because the suspect had time to arm themselves.
The second scenario requires law enforcement to prove that the suspect could quickly destroy evidence if officers knock before entering. The judge would sign off on this type of warrant if it is believed that all evidence could be destroyed in the time between the first knock and the officers forcing their way into the home.
The alternative is the knock-and-announce method of carrying out a search warrant. In a knock-and-announce entry, officers must bang on the door and identify themselves as police before entering the home. Officers can still forcibly enter the home, but they must identify themselves beforehand.
3. The death of Breonna Taylor
Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was asleep in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, when officers used a no-knock warrant to break into her home just after midnight on March 13. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he heard someone breaking into the apartment and grabbed his gun to fire a warning shot to stop the unknown intruders, hitting one of the responding officers in the leg.
Three other officers responded by shooting several shots into the apartment. Taylor was struck eight times and died of her injuries. Little else is known about the evening because the Louisville Metro Police Department has only released a mostly empty report that was riddled with inaccurate information.
Walker and Taylor’s neighbors have said that the officers never identified themselves before rushing into the home. None of the officers involved have been charged.
Police suspected Taylor’s address was being used to receive drugs in a USPS package for Jamarcus Glover, a man who was arrested in a separate raid that same evening.
The detective who requested the no-knock warrant said it was necessary “due to the nature of how these drug traffickers operate” and because drug traffickers have “a history of attempting to destroy evidence, have cameras on the location that compromise detectives once an approach to the dwelling is made.”
Attorneys for Taylor’s family have questioned how officers were able to get a no-knock warrant to search Taylor’s home when she had no criminal record beyond a years-old shoplifting charge that was dismissed in 2012. The Taylor family’s attorneys believe the detective misled the court by claiming to have gathered information from the USPS about Glover’s mail. The detective who requested the warrant has since been placed on administrative reassignment.
Taylor’s death has drawn attention to the danger posed by no-knock raids. A 2014 report from the American Civil Liberties Union found that 20,000 no-knock warrants are issued each year in the U.S. At least five suspects were killed by officers during the raids, and 46 civilians were injured in 2014.
It is not unheard of for someone who is not the target of the warrant to be injured while officers execute a no-knock raid. A flash-bang grenade was tossed into the crib of an infant in May 2014 while officers executed a no-know search warrant. The baby was severely injured, and doctors had to place her in a medically induced coma. The officers involved were not charged.
4. What is being done to change no-knock warrants?
Officials in Louisville and federal lawmakers have been working to limit severely or totally abolish the use of no-knock warrants.
On Thursday, the Louisville Metro Council passed “Breonna’s Law,” a city ordinance that completely forbids officers from using no-knock warrants. The ordinance is expected to be signed into law by the city’s mayor.
Previous versions of the ordinance left officers with the ability to obtain a no-knock warrant only when there is “imminent threat of harm or death” in cases involving murder, hostage-taking, kidnapping, terrorism, human trafficking, and sexual trafficking. In the final version, the council agreed there were no circumstances when they believed no-knock warrants could be safely used and voted unanimously to ban them completely.
“Everybody has finally come to agree that there’s really no legitimate reason to have no-knock search warrants,” said Councilman Brandon Coan. “On balance, the risk to human life does not outweigh whatever evidentiary benefit may accrue from them.”
There are two states in the U.S. that have already outlawed the use of no-knock warrants. Oregon has a state law requiring that police announce themselves before executing any search warrant. Florida’s state Supreme Court ruled that no-knock warrants violated the state’s constitution because of the “staggering potential for violence to both occupants and police.”
Several other municipalities have banned no-knock warrants. The city of Houston stopped serving no-knock warrants after a raid resulted in two deaths and five injuries in 2019.
On the federal level, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul introduced legislation that would effectively ban no-knock warrants called the “Justice for Breonna Taylor Act.” Under the Republican’s bill, any state or federal agency that receives federal funding must agree not to use no-knock warrants.
“After talking with Breonna Taylor’s family, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s long past time to get rid of no-knock warrants. This bill will effectively end no-knock raids in the United States,” Paul said.
5. How do law enforcement officers feel about no-knock warrants?
In the face of growing calls to get rid of no-knock warrants, defenders say they are a necessary law enforcement tool.
Ted Williams, a defense attorney and a former Washington, D.C., police detective, told Fox News that the “element of surprise” is sometimes needed for officers to be able to do their jobs.
“[No-knocks] are allowed because police officers need, when serving warrants on some occasions, an element of surprise,” he said. “There is an element of our community that is willing to kill police officers trying to do their jobs. … No-knock warrants are just something that are clearly needed, and I’m against actually taking out no-knock warrants.”
Still, W. Patrick Swanton, a police sergeant from Waco, Texas, told KWTX in June 2019 that officers take on a certain amount of risk no matter the method they use when serving a warrant.
“There is no completely safe way to serve any warrant,” he said. “There always is inherent danger when police serve a search warrant.”
Beyond no-knock warrants
Taylor’s death has been part of a larger nationwide conversation about race and police use of force that has taken place after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for several minutes during an arrest on Memorial Day.
Protesters have been demanding changes to policing practices and use of force guidelines. Members of Congress have been looking into a ban on chokeholds as well as changes to qualified immunity policies.
