Supreme Court on Knock and Announce.
There is a lot of bruhaha on this ruling.
I am conflicted on it. As I was trained in CJ at a Juko we are not to kick anyone's door in at every opportunity. He said if he sees any of us on cops with battering ram in hand, taps the door and knocks it in, then he'd hunt us down and beat our brains in. I agree.
But as Scalia said, I agree with him on it, too.
I think it can be helpful to have police discretion. But I think that every agency needs to train the way I was trained. That everyone is a human being and everyone has a right to privacy and only to use no knocks if you have an articulable reason.
I am conflicted on it. As I was trained in CJ at a Juko we are not to kick anyone's door in at every opportunity. He said if he sees any of us on cops with battering ram in hand, taps the door and knocks it in, then he'd hunt us down and beat our brains in. I agree.
But as Scalia said, I agree with him on it, too.
Scalia added that police might put their lives in danger
if they were uncertain when and if entry was legally permissible. "If the
consequences of running afoul of the law were so massive, officers would be
inclined to wait longer than the law requires -- producing inevitable violence
against officers in some cases, and the destruction of evidence in many
others."
I think it can be helpful to have police discretion. But I think that every agency needs to train the way I was trained. That everyone is a human being and everyone has a right to privacy and only to use no knocks if you have an articulable reason.
2 Comments:
Rhett,
You know as well as I do the problems aren't going to be with the 90% who follow the intent of the law, they're going to be with that 10% who're ALWAYS causing trouble.
Between that 10% and getting the wrong house on occasion - with NO KNOCK & NOTICE, people will die. Plain and simple, cops will be killed innocently and so will citizens if they aren't careful.
As long as departments don't use this evidentiary ruling to chage their policy on Knock & Notice, things will be okay - but it only takes a couple of knothead departments to make everyone look bad by hittin gthe wrong house and killing innocent people or having officers killed by homeowners who thought they were the victims of armed robberies.
I see lots of problems from this ruling if agencies aren't REAL careful!
Mike
It is a lot similar to the Taser issue. A wise department (or one with very well-trained officers)will have a very strict standard but as of right now the laws and some policies on their use are very lenient. (Failure to follow verbal commands in one jurisdiction.)
As with most any Supreme Court case, they have the best intentions, but as you point out a few abusers make everyone look bad. Hopefully the fear of litigation in this situation will keep everyone on the up and up and not abuse it.
From what I've heard, almost every PD has more restrictions than the S.C. does on search warrants. But the fear about the few that don't, along with no-knock and mistaken addresses are a grave concern.
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