The police tactic use against Breonna Taylor explained:
- Click here for the report.
A chunk of it:
. . . amid recent calls for legislative changes to police practices, another area that has received attention concerns the authority for law enforcement officers to execute a warrant by entering a home without first seeking consensual entry by announcing themselves and their purpose. As a default, law enforcement officers must comply with the knock and announce rule— an “ancient” common-law doctrine, which generally requires officers to knock and announce their presence before entering a home to execute a search warrant. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness requirement as generally mandating compliance with the knock and announce rule. The knock and announce rule is also codified in a federal statute, but the Supreme Court has interpreted that statute as “prohibiting nothing” and “merely [authorizing] officers to damage property [upon entry] in certain instances.”When officers violate the knock and announce rule, they may be subject to civil lawsuits and “internal police discipline.” However, in Hudson v. Michigan the Supreme Court curtailed the remedies available for knock and announce violations by concluding that evidence obtained following such a violation is not subject to the exclusionary rule, which “prevents the government from using most evidence gathered in violation of the United States Constitution.”
