Georgia Senate committee reviews “No knock” warrants

Last week the Judiciary Committee in the Georgia Senate backed a measure that would make it tougher to obtain a “no-knock warrant”:

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Vincent Fort, (D) Atlanta, would require officers who want to use so-called “no-knock” search warrants to go to a judge and prove that there is probable cause to believe that the officers’ lives would be in danger if they knocked first, or that there is probable cause to believe that evidence inside the home would be destroyed — such as drugs being flushed down a toilet — if they knocked first.

“For the government to go into your house, they ought to be held to a higher standard,” Fort said. “To go into your house without knocking, they ought to be held to a real high standard.”

This comes in response to the death of Kathryn Johnston, who gunned down in her home in 2006 during a paramilitary police raid.

You can view the legislation here.