State Senate passes measure to restrict noknock warrants
FRANKFORT, Ky — A bill that would limit the use of “noknock” warrants passed the Kentucky Senate unanimously, the latest effort to reform law enforcement tactics after the death of Breonna Taylor, a woman who was fatally shot when Louisville police broke down her door in the middle of the night.
The proposal mandates that noknock warrants would only be issued if there is “clear and convincing evidence” that the “crime alleged is a crime that would qualify a person, if convicted, as a violent offender.” The warrants would also have to be executed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The measure now awaits House input.
Taylor, a Black woman, was shot in her home multiple times by police during a botched drug raid that occurred after midnight last March. Her death stirred a series of protests over the summer and into the fall, with many demonstrators calling on state and national officials to ban noknock warrants.
A grand jury indicted one officer on wanton endangerment charges in September for shooting into a neighbor’s apartment. But no officers were charged in connection with her death. Police had a noknock warrant but said they knocked and announced their presence before entering Taylor’s apartment, a claim some witnesses have disputed. No drugs were found in Taylor’s apartment.
“If this law had been in place and the officers followed it … this young lady would be here,” said Republican Senate President Robert Stivers, who sponsored the bill.
Louisville’s Metro Council banned all noknock warrants in June 2020. Virginia passed a ban on all noknock warrants last fall. The warrants are also not permitted under Oregon and Florida state law.
The bill also includes measures that Stivers said would require officers to take more steps in order to obtain warrants in the limited circumstances they are allowed.
In a speech on the floor, Stivers insisted that some noknock warrants were still valuable in cases where law enforcement was investigating terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and kidnapping.
Democratic state Sen. Gerald Neal praised the bill, but cautioned that more would need to be done to improve race relations and policing in Kentucky.
“It’s not enough because the problems we face go deeper than ‘noknocks,’ ” said Neal, who is Black. “Our problems are broader, they are deeper. They’re going to require a longterm willingness to understand and do those things that serve us all.”
A bill that includes a complete ban on noknock warrants has stalled since filing.