My @UofSCLaw students @ac_parham/@JasCaruthers & I have been researching no-knock warrant data for the Breonna Taylor case. Some preliminary findings #thread cc: @ACLUofKY @louisvillemayor @GovAndyBeshear @djaycameron 
The @denverpost reviewed no-knock warrant requests for a 1-year period from 1999-2000. 167 no-knock warrants were requested. 162 were approved and only *5* were denied (3% denial rate).
More than 82% of the no-knock raids targeted minority residents (race of the target wasn't specified in 3% of cases). At the time, Denver's population was 56% Caucasian.
In 81% of no-knock raids, no guns were found despite the affidavits supporting the no-knock warrants stating that weapons were likely to be found.
More recently @KATVJanelle did a review of 1,594 search warrants requested by the Little Rock Narcotics Unit from 2009-2019.
62% of the warrants were no-knock warrants, 5% were knock-and-announce warrants, and 33% did not specify which type they were.
Little Rock residents targeted by no-knock warrants from 2009-2019: •67% black males; •15% black females; •12% white males; •6% white females
In the last 3 years of the Litttle Rock study, only 23/215 no-knock warrants mentioned the suspect’s access to a gun, but all 215 no-knock warrants were approved.
In that same 3 year period, fewer than 5% of the no-knock warrants resulted in the suspect getting any jail/prison time.
There has also been amazing work by @radleybalko covering Little Rock no-knock raids for @washingtonpost. He reviewed 105 warrants served between 2016 and 2018.
In at least 103/105, the no-knock raid was approved. In 97/105, police provided no specific information why the suspect warranted a no-knock raid.
Little Rock residents targeted by no-knock warrants: 84/105 (80%) black suspects; 16 (15.2%) white suspects; 5 (4.8%) Latino suspects. Little Rock was 46% white/42% black/7% Hispanic or Latino.
8 warrants were only for marijuana, and, in 4 cases, only an anonymous tip or sift through suspect’s trash supported the no-knock warrant.
The @ACLU did a study of more than 800 SWAT deployments by 20 law enforcement agencies from 2011-2012.
42% of people impacted by SWAT deployments to execute search warrants were black and 12% were Latino.
No-knock warrants were used/probably used in 60% of cases in which SWAT was looking for drugs. Results: Contraband found: Yes: 35%; No: 36%; Unknown: 29%.
There was reporting by @KHOU on 109 drug cases Houston Police Officer Gerald Goins filed based on search warrant since 2012. 96% were no-knock warrants.
In every case in which Goins said confidential informants saw guns at the site of a no-knock warrant, no weapons were recovered.
There was reporting by @RyanPoppe1 for @TPRNews that found that just under 30% of police and sheriff’s departments have written no-knock policies in Texas.
The reporting also found that 92% of all warrants served in San Antonio were the result of no-knock searches.
A 1984 report by @StateCourts found that in one unnamed city -- Mountain City -- standardized text was usually used to support no-knock requests.
A similar result was found by @KATVJanelle in her Little Rock study: nearly every affidavit/no-knock warrant had the same language in the same paragraphs and had nothing about the specific suspect’s violence or ability to destroy evidence.
We're currently in the process of finding more data, including breaking down years worth of raw data from Utah. If you know of any other reporting/data on no-knock warrants, please let us know.
Take-homes: (1) police request many no-knock warrants; (2) they largely target minorities (3) they're almost always approved/not regulated; (4) they're almost never supported by suspect-specific intel; (5) they rarely uncover drugs/weapons; & (6) they cause many deaths/injuries.
