A national task force studying the effectiveness of police reforms recommended Wednesday that all American law enforcement departments take three steps to advance justice: ban chokeholds, outlaw or severely restrict no-knock warrants and require officers to intervene if a co-worker is doing something wrong. But it may be the no-knock warrant recommendation that is the biggest sticking point in metro Atlanta.
The findings from the panel at the influential Council on Criminal Justice had been anticipated after people angered by perceived police abuses, particularly against people of color, protested in the streets in the summer of 2020.
Wednesday’s guidance is the first to come from the task force — made up of police officials, activists and academics. The panel is also studying the effectiveness of more than a dozen other potential reforms and is expected to issue recommendations throughout 2021.
Many departments around Atlanta already barred chokeholds and have an intervention policy. Rare is the agency that has banned no-knock warrants, but some limit them.
Police say no-knock warrants — which allow officers to raid a home without knocking or announcing themselves — are sometimes necessary to protect law enforcement from suspects who, given a warning, might become violent or destroy evidence.
Critics call the warrants dangerous for officers and residents because surprised residents sometimes attack the police, not knowing who they are, and startled police sometimes open fire.
State law doesn’t address no-knock warrants, but police obtain them by citing case law.
Some agencies have policies intended to limit misuse of the warrants. The Brookhaven Police Department, for instance, requires a supervisor’s approval before an officer can ask a judge for a search warrant. The supervisor must attend the search, and officers must record with their body cameras, according to Lt. David Snively.
Plus, Snively said in a common refrain from police: no-knock warrants are rare. “I am not aware of any case in BPD’s seven-year history when we have executed a search warrant without first knocking, identifying ourselves as police officers, and announcing the presence of a search warrant — even in cases when a judge has granted us permission to do so,” said the lieutenant, whose agency was created in 2013 after the incorporation of the city of Brookhaven.
But the searches do happen around metro Atlanta, sometimes with terrible results. In 2006, Atlanta narcotics officers shot and killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during an illegal raid on her home. In 2014, Habersham County toddler Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh was severely injured when a stun grenade landed on his pillow during a no-knock raid.
State Sen. Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican, said in December that lawmakers may address the issue of no-knock warrants during the current legislative session.
“It’s a little troublesome that there’s no provision in Georgia law that really allows those, but they have begun to be used and in many times (with) disastrous consequences,” Cowsert said.
DeRay Mckesson, a civil rights activist on the task force, said the panel found that any benefit police might gain from a no-knock warrant isn’t worth the risk. That’s especially true in drug investigations where officers may be in search of contraband, he said.
“There’s no reason cities should be in the business of rescuing drugs,” Mckesson said during a news conference Wednesday.
The possible consequences echo in the case of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician who died in March after police shot her as she slept through a drug raid in Louisville, Kentucky. City officials voted to ban no-knock warrants after the deadly raid, which turned up no drugs. As it happens, former Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields has taken over for the Louisville chief who was fired after Taylor’s death. Shields had resigned last summer after an Atlanta officer shot Rayshard Brooks, a Black man, in a Wendy’s parking lot.
Atlanta officials haven’t barred no-knock warrants, but the City Council voted unanimously in September to urge state legislators to impose a ban.
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