CBA Record July-August 2022

YOUNG L AWYERS S EC T I ON : BU I LD I NG BR I DGE S

and flashbangs in at least half of no-knock raids. Regardless of fruitfulness, occu pants are rarely reimbursed for property damage. Botched raids have also spawned federal civil rights suits, forcing taxpay ers to fund several multi-million-dollar settlements annually from 2010 to 2015. Current State and Local Approaches Three states have banned no-knock war rants completely. In Oregon, police may execute a search warrant only within the period and at the times authorized by the warrant and after notifying occupants of their presence. In Virginia, under Bre onna Taylor’s Law, police can execute warrants only if they give occupants audible notice during daytime hours and police are recognizable in uniform. In Florida, the supreme court recognized in 1994 that the common law presumed no-knock warrants were illegal and with out legal effect in the state, unless there was express statutory authorization.

Force Standardization Act on July 1, 2021. Under that act, officers may execute a no-knock warrant only when they: (1) are equipped with body-worn recording equipment, and (2) take reasonable steps to both ensure they search the correct property and determine whether chil dren and other vulnerable people are on the property. If any officer learns that the wrong residence was raided, they must report that to supervisors so the

trolled substance possession, police may not execute the warrant unless there is probable cause that the controlled sub stance is for a purpose other than per sonal use. Moreover, an agency must report the use of a no-knock warrant to the public safety commissioner within three months of its issuance. The public safety commissioner in turn must provide an annual report to the chairs and rank ing minority members of the legislative committees with jurisdiction over public safety. That report must include, among other things, the number of no-knock warrants the courts have issued, the cir cumstances under which each no-knock warrant was requested, and the number of injuries or fatalities suffered, if any. On the federal level, Senator Rand Paul proposed the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, which would require police to provide notice of their author ity and purpose before executing a no-knock warrant and forcibly enter ing a premises. The bill applies to any state and local police agency receiving funds from the Department of Justice. Need for a Uniform National Ban Although these various measures are a good start to resolving the problems of no-knock warrants, they are not effec tive enough alone. None of these mea sures hold police legally accountable for mistaken and violent raids. Further, some measures are clear whereas others are ambiguous. For example, Virginia’s law allows judges to authorize no-knock warrants broadly if police show “good

incident can be investigated internally. In September 2021, Minnesota’s Senate and House restricted the use of no-knock warrants. Several legislative amendments permit police to execute no knock search warrants only after the war rant application is reviewed by the chief law enforcement officer and another superior officer. If, however, the warrant application lists only the crime of con

Other states have limited no-knock war rants. For example, in 2021, Kentucky passed a bill mandating that only specially trained police with body cameras may execute no-knock warrants. But counties with fewer than 90,000 people can obtain court-approved exemptions. Notably, this bill fails to mandate alcohol or drug testing of officers involved in deadly incidents. Illinois passed the Statewide Use of

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