Advocates of Kansas House legislation imposing a prohibition on no-knock search warrants by law enforcement officers Monday triggered indignation and rebukes from legislators with professional experience as investigators, attorneys and judges in Kansas. Rep. Brett Fairchild, a St. John Republican, joined with Republican and Democratic peers in the House to seek support for the bill endorsed by representatives of the Libertarian Party and the ACLU of Kansas. It would require officers to be in uniform and to announce their presence before breaking down doors of a residence in a quest for suspects or evidence. A collection of law enforcement organizations testified against House Bill 2133. … McPherson Police Chief Mikel Golden, representing the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, told the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee the legislation was unnecessary. No-knock warrants for high-risk suspects were rare and didn’t give officers a license to be reckless, he said. This type of warrant did enable officers to get inside a residence swiftly and improve odds of avoiding the threat of violence at home entrances, he said. “Officers will be announcing “police department, search warrant” as they go through the residence,” Golden said. “They just do not have to sit in the fatal funnel at the door for 10 seconds or more announcing “police department, search warrant,” when the reasonable response would be to get in the residence as quickly as possible to protect lives and property.”
Source: Kansas Reflector
