The Louisville Metro Council on Thursday voted unanimously to ban no-knock warrants. The legislation was entitled Breonna’s Law in honor of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was fatally shot during a raid by Louisville Metro Police Department on her home earlier this year.
Taylor’s death has become one of the focal points in the protests against police violence that have swept across the US. She was at home in her apartment with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, on March 13 when police executed a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night. Walker reportedly reached for his gun and fired at police, allegedly because he believed the officers were robbers. The officers subsequently returned fire, and Taylor was killed in the crossfire. Taylor was 26 years old and served as an Emergency Medical Technician in her community.
The legislation categorically bans the use of no-knock warrants for all Louisville law enforcement. It also provides further screening in the warrant approval process and mandates increased body camera usage during search warrant executions. Specifically, it requires all officers to wear body cameras when serving search warrants and to turn on the cameras five minutes before executing the search warrant as well leave them on until five minutes after it’s completion.
The legislation follows the earlier suspension of no-knock warrants by the mayor. The mayor has also stated “I plan to sign Breonna’s Law as soon as it hits my desk,” which likely will mean that the legislation will be fully enacted very soon.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul also introduced a bill on Thursday to ban no-knock warrants in most forms nationwide. The bill’s discussion draft is currently titled as the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act. The bill would prohibit Federal law enforcement officers and any law enforcement agency that recieves Federal funding from utilizing no-knock warrants.