In the United States, a no-knock warrant is a warrant issued by a judge that allows law enforcement to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents, such as by knocking or ringing a doorbell. In most cases, law enforcement will identify themselves just before they forcefully enter the property. It is issued under the belief that any evidence they hope to find may be destroyed between the time that police identify themselves and the time they secure the area, or in the event where there is a large perceived threat to officer safety during the execution of the warrant.
Use of no-knock warrants has increased substantially over time. By one estimate, there were 1,500 annually in the early 1980s whereas by 2010 there were 60,000–70,000 no-knock or quick-knock raids conducted by local police annually, the majority of which were looking for marijuana.
Amid nationwide protests in response to the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, there were extensive calls to end no-knock warrants. Critics argue that no-knock warrants were prone to lead to deadly use of force by police and the deaths of innocent people. They also argue that no-knock warrants conflict with the right to self-defense, "stand-your-ground" laws, and the castle doctrine, which explicitly permit the use of deadly force against intruders.
Currently, Florida, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia ban no-knock warrants; however, state-level bans do not affect federal law enforcement. Thirteen states have laws explicitly permitting no-knock warrants, and the remaining states issue them based on a judge's discretion.
History
The use of no-knock warrants is a product of the country's "war on drugs" launched by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, and which gained momentum in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. It is associated with the militarization of police.
Legal authority
English common law has required law enforcement to knock-and-announce since at least Semayne's case (1604), and in Miller v. United States (1958), the Supreme Court of the United States recognized that police must give notice before making a forced entry. In the U.S. federal criminal law, the rule generally requiring knock-and-announce is codified at 18 U.S.C § 3109.
The 1963 Supreme Court ruling Ker v. California set a precedent in favor of forcible police entries involving drugs out of concern that evidence could be destroyed. However, in Wilson v. Arkansas (1995) the Court created an exception to prevent the destruction of evidence. Richard v. Wisconsin in 1997 sought to add more clarification, allowing for no-knock searches when police have "a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing their presence, under the particular circumstances, would be dangerous or futile, or that it would inhibit the effective investigation of the crime by, for example, allowing the destruction of evidence," according to the ruling. Both the 1995 and 1997 rulings allowed local and state judges a lot of discretion in determining what constitutes "reasonable suspicion."
In Hudson v. Michigan (2006) the Court held by a 5–4 vote that the exclusionary rule does not require the suppression of evidence police seize during an illegal forced entry.
According to the United States Department of Justice:
No-knock warrants may be issued in every state except Oregon (prohibited by state law), Florida (prohibited by a 1994 state supreme court decision), Virginia (prohibited through legislation passed in 2020), and Tennessee (prohibited through legislation passed in 2021). In Utah, a 2014 law prohibits no-knock warrants for cases involving only drug possession. A 2021 law passed in Maine limits no-knock warrants to certain high-risk situations and requires the use of body cameras. Thirteen states have laws explicitly authorizing no-knock warrants, and in 20 additional states, no-knock warrants are routinely granted.
Reform
The act of entering someone's home by surprise, often late at night or early in the morning, creates a risk of violence, especially given the prevalence of gun ownership in United States.
Proposals for reform include legislating for a checklist of conditions to be applied for all police search warrants: "with some exceptions, officers should be in uniform; they should do the raid during the day; and they shouldn't rely on out-of-date intelligence about who lives in a targeted home."