Wu proposes statewide ban on no-knock warrants
HOUSTON — A bill prefiled this week by state Rep. Gene Wu would ban noknock 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 top-ranking police officials and the signature of a district court judge — not municipal court judges or county magistrates — before officers could carry out noknock 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 discovered 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 altogether.
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 betransparentandhold offi
cers accountable when he declined for months to release the findings ofaninternal audit on 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 noknock 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 noknock warrants.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, filed a bill in June that would have ended no-knock 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 noknock warrants but would not have banned the practice.