Wu proposes ban on no-knock-warrants
Abill pre-filed this week by state Rep. Gene Wu would ban no-knock warrants across Texas, marking the first major legislative response to last year’s botched drug raid that led to the deaths of two Houston residents and murder charges for a police officer.
Wu’s proposal, which he filed Tuesday, would bar magistrates from issuing warrants that allow police to break into residents’ homes without warning. After the practice came under scrutiny in Houston, Police Chief Art Acevedo began requiring approval from topranking police officials and the signature of a districtcourt judge— not municipal court judges or county magistrates — before officers could carry out no-knock warrants.
Acevedo implemented the policy change after narcotics officers in January burst into a home on Harding Street in search of heroin, sparking an eruption of gunfire that killed residents Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and injured five officers. Police dis covered only small amounts of cocaine and marijuana during the bust.
Shortly after the raid, Acevedo said no-knock warrants “are going to go away like leaded gasoline in this city,” prompting headlines that claimed the Houston Police Department would end the practice alto-gether.
Acevedo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the bill.
Wu, D-Houston, has been highly critical of Acevedo at times since the botched raid. He accused the chief of contradicting his pledges to be transparent and hold officers accountable when he declined for months to release the findings of an internal auditon HPD’s narcotics division. Acevedo ordered the probe in response to the deadly drug raid.
After Acevedo released the audit, Wu called it a “scam” and “whitewash” that he said did not explain the issues that led to the botched raid.
Earlier this year, Wu also joined a chorus of officials and advocates who called on Acevedo to release body camera video of a series of fatal shootings by Houston police.
Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi said Wednesday that union officials “don’t have a position one way or the other” on Wu’s bill. He said HPD officers “will enforce and abide by whatever the legislators vote in as the law.”
It is unclear whether Wu’s bill will gain enough support to become law, though Democrats and Republicans have expressed support for ending no-knock warrants. In a Morning Consult survey of registered voters earlier this year, 75 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans said they supported a federal ban on no-knock warrants.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, filed a bill in June that would have ended noknock raids, and U.S. House Democrats also included the proposal in their criminal justice reform bill. Legislation introduced by Senate Republicans would have incentivized departments to end no-knock warrants but would not have banned the practice.
During the 2019 legislative session, state Rep. Terry Meza,D- Irving, filed a bill that would have required law enforcement agencies to submit reports to the Department of Public Safety detailing their use of no-knock warrants. The DPS director then would have to report the findings to lawmakers.
That bill did not make it out of committee.