Louisville council passes ‘Breonna’s Law’ banning no-knock warrants
The Louisville, Kentucky, metro council unanimously voted to pass an ordinance called “Breonna’s Law” on Thursday, banning no-knock search warrants in wake of Breonna Taylor’s death.
Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot eight times by Louisville police after officers forced their way inside her home and exchanged shots with her boyfriend in an attempted drug sting in March. The officers had a no-knock warrant.
The council voted 26-0 in favor of the ordinance Thursday evening, according to CNN affiliate WLKY. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer tweeted that he plans to sign it “as soon as it hits my desk.”
Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mom, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that her daughter “would have been amazed to see the world changing.”
Taylor, who was an EMT, “was saving lives while she was living,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Taylor’s family, told Cooper Thursday.
“Now with the passage of the Breonna Taylor Law, she will be saving lives forever.”
The ordinance regulates how search warrants are carried out and mandates the use of body cameras during searches.
The ordinance also requires all Louisville Metro Police Department officers to be equipped with an operating body camera while carrying out a search.
The cameras have to be activated no later than five minutes prior to all searches and remain on for five minutes after.
All recorded data also has to be retained for five years following an executing action, according to the ordinance.
The news comes after the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department announced on May 21 that it would require all sworn officers to wear body cameras and change how the department carries out search warrants.
“I suspended use of these warrants indefinitely last month, and wholeheartedly agree with Council that the risk to residents and officers with this kind of search outweigh any benefit,” Fischer wrote in his tweet.
“This is one of many critical steps on police reform that we’ve taken to create a more peaceful, just, compassionate and equitable community.”
Fischer last week fired the LMPD police chief after officials discovered two police officers involved in fatal shooting of a man during a protest over Taylor’s and George Floyd’s death had not activated their body cameras.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Thrusday introduced a bill called the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act which would ban no-knock warrants for federal law enforcement.
Paul’s bill would also block state and local law enforcement agencies that receive Justice Department funding from carrying out no-knock warrants.
