Senate bill restricting no-knock warrants in Kentucky moves forward

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A bill drafted in response to the fatal Breonna Taylor shooting which would enact stricter measures on police obtaining no-knock warrants was approved by the Senate Thursday.

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, who filed the bill, testified that Taylor's rights were denied because of a "series of bad police judgements, and this bill hopes to correct that."

The bill, which prohibits no-knock warrants except under certain circumstances, passed unanimously by the Senate. It will now go to the House.

"We've needed this legislation for a long time," said Sen. John Schickel (R-Union), who is a retired police officer.

No-knock warrants allow police officers to forcibly enter a home without warning.

"The idea that when you go on a search warrant you take away one of the most basic constitutional rights that a citizen has, and to do that every 'i' should be dotted and every 't' crossed," Schickel said during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier on Thursday. "And there shouldn't be any room for sloppiness. … It is a good step for more justice in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

The bill, which comes nearly a year after Louisville Metro Police officers obtained a no-knock warrant and raided Taylor's apartment after midnight on March 13, provides more monitoring and requires police take additional steps to obtain these types of warrants.

For starters, Stivers said obtaining a no-knock warrant should be done in only extreme situations, like when there is "clear and convincing" evidence of a violent crime or terroristic activity.

In addition, the bill would require that no-knock warrants be served only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

And the legislation requires the officer seeking the warrant to have approval from a supervisor, consult with a commonwealth attorney or county attorney and disclose to the judge any previous attempts asking a different judge to sign off on the warrant.

If the bill becomes law, a judge must legibly sign the warrant. This was an issue highlighted by a KyCIR-WDRB News investigation.

Those serving the no-knock warrant must be members of a special weapons and tactics team or another established, trained team. Those law enforcement members would be required to have body camera devices turned on while serving the warrant.

Stivers also noted there is a penalty of perjury in the bill for officers who include false information in a search warrant affidavit.

"To have faith in law enforcement, the law enforcement needs to make sure they are making truthful statements, that they are not intentionally misleading a court," he said.

A Louisville police detective is under federal investigation for including false information in the Taylor warrant affidavit, saying a U.S. Postal Inspector told him a drug suspect had been receiving packages at Taylor's home.

The detective, Joshua Jaynes, never talked to a postal inspector before writing the affidavit. Other LMPD officers asked two members of the Shively Police Department to check with a postal inspector and were told there were no packages being sent to Taylor's home.

Taylor, 26, was shot six times and died at the scene. No drugs were found in her home.

Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought they were being robbed, according to his attorney, and fired at officers when they rushed in, hitting Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.

A Jefferson County grand jury indicted one of the officers, former Det. Brett Hankison, on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into an apartment near Taylor's unit where a man, pregnant woman and child were at the time.

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, said during the hearing that while police did obtain a no-knock warrant for Taylor's raid, he noted there has been testimony that police both knocked and announced their presence. Walker and several neighbors have said they didn't hear police identify themselves.

"This particular case is not as cut and dried as many want the public to believe it was," he said. "It's the nature of the business when you are conducting drug investigations you are dealing with dangerous people and you never know what's going to go wrong. ... There are going to be mistakes. Law enforcement officers are human."

Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, is the sponsor of Breonna's Law, a bill that would ban no-knock warrants entirely. Scott has voiced frustration with the Senate bill, arguing it ignores her proposal which includes additional police accountability measures.